Forgotten Memories
by Chiyoku
Summary: Jack is just an ordinary teenager in the town of Burgess; he lives on his own, has a part time job at the local Starbucks, and tries to prank his loneliness away. His life is turned upside-down when four mysterious people enters his life, and tells him that he is Jack Frost, the Spirit of Winter, but just how will he react to this, while knowing only he can see them?
1. One Member Short

**Hey everyone out there, who was being lead here one way or another! This is the first chapter, so I hope you will enjoy it, and, hopefully, find it interesting enough to stick around for a bit. But none the less, you shall have a thanks for drobbing by!**

**Enjoy the reading~**

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The aurora borealis were shining upon the sky, calling the guardians together for their monthly checkup. It had been two years since the defeat of Pitch, and there was peace in the world, which was wonderful for the them – no Pitch meant there wouldn't be any 'extra' work and no holidays that were being threatened.

North was in the globe room, waiting for the others to come, while he was listening to Phil's rambling about how the elves were making problems in the storage again, and that some other elves had been making a ruckus in the workshop by putting glue all over the floor, making quite a lot of the yetis being stuck to it. They had been more mischievous than normally, and it was creating problems for the schedule they held to Christmas in a few months.

However, the moment North saw the first of his friends appear, he dismissed Phil, by simply stating that it made everything more interesting, and that it was no big deal, they just had to work harder, much to Phil's displease. "Tooth, you fast as ever!" The big Russian greeted with a wide smile and open arms, overly enjoyed to see her again.

The fairy flew to him with a smile on her face, though panting heavily, as if she had been flying as fast as she could to get there. "Good to see you!" She hugged him without losing the wide smile on her lips, while almost falling over her words at the next she said. "Well, you know me; I'm … I'm always first on … everything, so there's nothing new there… Bunny's not here?" She looked around rather quickly, and when North shook his head, she made a shout of joy, before she turned to the small amount of fairies around her, giving them a hectic order where after two of them left to gather the teeth. When she turned back to him, her smile was more of an excited grin, while she made a chuckle that more or less sounded like an evil laughter, making North wonder what was up with her.

"Tooth, you okay? You seem a little –" He got interrupted when a well-known voice exclaimed behind him.

"Aw ya got to be kiddin' me; there's no way ya could have gotten here before me!" North looked past his shoulder, only to see a frustrated Bunny with his arms up in the air. "You cheated!"

A well-satisfied snicker sounded from Tooth as she flew to the frustrated Easter Bunny, with a grin even wider than before, though she still was panting heavily. "I told you I could do it." She grinned even wider, if that was even possible at the moment, before she continued, while poking a finger in his chest. "I won didn't I?"

Bunny rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, eyeing the overly happy fairy in front of him. "Alright ya won, now but I'm still calling you a cheat."

"I don't care about that, but you know what you have to do next time we meet up, right?"

"I know."

"You're going to do it?"

"No."

"But you promised!"

"I will be a total laugh if I do it Tooth!"

"We made a bet!"

"I don't want to! Jack would never let me forget it!"

"It will be fun?"

"Not for me."

"Come on!"

"…"

"Bunny!"

"Fine, I'll do it!"

"Yes!" Tooth punched the air in victory and squealed when he had agreed, and even her small fairies around her high-fived and some even began laughing.

"What are you two talking about?" North asked, confused of what was going on between the two of them, but whatever it was, it made Bunny look really uncomfortable at the thought, which was completely opposite of Tooth's reaction. Neither of them noticed Sandy coming through the window behind them.

The smile on Tooth's face became an evil smirk as she turned to the Guardian of Wonder. "Bunny and I made a bet about who would first get to the meeting this time around, and whoever won got to come up with something embarrassing for the other, and since I won, Bunny have to do what I have planned!"

"And what was that? What had you bet against each other?" North asked, unsure if he wanted to know. Whenever Tooth came up with something like that, it was never really something that would be considered funny, but seeing Bunny's reaction she had come up with something brilliant this time around, which was a surprise in itself.

"Ehm," she looked nervously at the big man in front of her. "Let's just say that what he would had me doing is something we don't have to mention, but _Bunny_ has to show up in a baby outfit with a diaper and bonnet, a comforter, a teat, a doll and all that, at the next meeting." She looked at Bunny from the corner of her eye, who, at the moment, was slamming his head against the wall. "_And_, he has to act as a real baby for at least half an hour, trying to be as cute as possible, but not falling out of his role."

North stared at her for a whole minute, not being able to believe how she had gotten that stubborn and proud Australian to agree with doing such a bet, but it didn't take long before he, North, burst out laughing. This was just brilliant! He already couldn't wait to the next meeting, it was going to memorable not to mention seeing Jack's reaction to seeing Bunny like that would be priceless. "Haha! Tooth, I had never expected you to be genius to come up with that! That is what Jack would have thought of!"

"Well," she made an awkward smile and rubbed her left arm. "It sort of was his idea to begin with, so –"

"WHAT!?" The Guardian of Hope stared at her with eyes twitching, before he buried his face into his paws and moaned. "I should have known! I should have suspected something to be up when ya wanted to make that bet, but since it was you I just did it without a nilly willy, and now I have to do what Frostbite came up with! Oh Manny, this is going to be worse than I thought!"

Tooth grinned sheepishly before she finally noticed Sandy who had arrived a few moments before she had started to explain, who too was laughing of the idea of Bunny dressed up as a baby. "Oh, hey Sandy." He waved to her in response, creating a picture of Bunny with a diaper above his head, clearly showing what he was thinking of.

"Knock it off will ya?" Bunny brooded when he saw the figure, only causing the little golden man to smile wildly, but eventually let the figure disappear, not wanting to make his friend mad at him, though he found it absolutely amusing.

The three guardians chuckled to themselves, before North cleared his throat and looked at around, not seeing their newest member. Sure enough, Jack was usually late and did not care for the meetings in the first place. When they first had told him that they met up regularly, he had protested, stating that he didn't want to be obligated to go to meetings, since it would damage his 'image' as a free spirit, but he eventually always came anyway. North had slightly suspected that he enjoyed seeing them all, not to mention that he always stuck around longer than anyone else after. Now was apparently no exception for him to come later than the other.

However …

"Ya gotta be kiddin' me!" Bunny exclaimed when he looked at the clock on the wall. "It's been four hours, North! That billylid is ditchin' us! He ain't gonna show."

The Cossack sighed as he had to admit that Bunny was right about Jack not showing, though he couldn't help but have a bad feeling in his belly. Something was wrong, he was sure of it; Jack normally would have been here by now, but considering that there had gone this much time, then it didn't feel right. He had never missed a single of their meetings before. He got later than everybody else, but he _never_ didn't show up.. "Better go out and search for him then, no?"

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A youngster in his last teen years walked down the streets of Burgess with his hands in his jacket, balancing on the curbstones af a silent street in town, since he had nothing to do at the moment. Sleet was falling from the sky, but it still wasn't cold enough for the cheap snow to stay on the ground, as it melted the second it came in contact. It saddened him to see for some reason; he felt so compelled to the snow and wanted it to stay on the ground for as long as it could, but it was still too early in the season for that to happen.

He eyed his outfit in his reflection in a window to make sure it sat as it should, and it did. He was dressed in a black fashionable jacket with a grey hoodie underneath, a necklace with an animal fang as a pendant, skinny dark jeans, combat boots, a dark beanie covering his chocolate brown hair, and a pair of sunglasses covering his just as brown eyes, despite the lack of sun. A really nice style in all honesty, it made him look cool and all, but he didn't feel comfortable in it, mostely because he hated that he had to wear shoes. But he wore the clothes he did to try to fit in with the other youngsters at his age, though he had sort of started to give up on the thought about doing so. No matter what he did he simply couldn't seem to fit it, like there were some huge gab between him and the rest of the world, but what it was he couldn't tell. It caused him loneliness and pain, but he tried to push the feelings aside, covering it up with a smile to make the world believe he was okay, and was doing great when in reality.. he wasn't.

The teen shook his head to shake off the despressing feeling, before he turned away from the road and walked towards the park, where some kids were playing catch on the playground while they were laughing and screaming whenever the one catcher got close to catch them. He stopped up and watched them, unknowingly having a smile on his lips as he watched them having their fun. He really wanted to join them in their game, but, noticing the glares he got from their parents, he quickly walked away, not wanting to seem like a creep of some sort. He couldn't blame them though; strangers could easily be some pervs, though he wasn't like those. He was just like an overgrown child who had been forced into growing up, but simply couldn't, no matter what he did.

As he walked through the park, his eye fell on the early Halloween decorations, wondering just how come some people would already start to decorate when there still was three weeks to the holiday. _A bit early, maybe?_ He thought to himself as he jumped over a puddle on the ground. It was the same thing that happened with Christmas; everyone was decorating, sometimes one and a half month before the actual month arrived, making some of the glory of it all disappear by doing so. Also all those commercials that came through mail would already start with Christmas deals in the beginning of November.

He eventually passed a group of people who all stood in costumes, talking in a heated discussion about someone missing, and from what he could hear, it was one of their friends who had burned them off. They all seemed so distressed. He had to give it to them though; their costumes was so great that they almost looked real.

He watched them as he went by, adjusting his beanie to keep his hair out of his eyes, trying to figure what they were dressed as, despite it was too early for anyone to begin running around all dressed up for Halloween; one of them was a _very_ little man, all covered in golden paint of some sort, wearing a single-piece suit of some sort, with spiky hair, all in a golden color. He was all glittering as if he had been showered in actual golden glitter. Another was a large man with a big white beard, a red jacket with black fur around the neck, and a big black Russian hat on his head, not to forget the twin swords hanging from his waist. The last of the guys was dressed as some sort of bunny mixed with a kangaroo, with a belt around his shoulder and boomerangs in his hands. The only girl in the group was dressed in a colorful feathery suit with big wings on her back, as some sort of hummingbird-like fairy, and was that hummingbirds around her?

With an impressive snicker he looked away, wondering just how they could pull off such impressive costumes, though he had no idea what they were supposed to be dressed as. Was it weird that he felt as if he had seen them somewhere before? He shook the thought off of him, and continued to walk, not noticing the glance he got from small golden man.

Sandy watched the teenager that had just passed them. He had a weird feeling about the boy, however he pushed the thought aside as the teen took out his phone and began texting, while Sandy himself turned his attention back to his friends. They still needed to find their missing friend, and watching mortals weren't helping. Jack was hiding somewhere, but apparently Burgess wasn't the place, so they decided to leave the place to search elsewhere – anywhere. As long as there was snow it meant that Jack could be there.

Little did they know that the teenager, who had just passed them, was their guy.


	2. The Prankster King

The students at Burgess High School were all on their way to their respective classes before the bell would ring for the fourth period. A certain brown haired teen stood by his locker and tried to fish one of his books out from all the way in the back of it. Why did he have to have such a mess in there anyway? He had only had it for a month and it was probably already the messiest locker in school. After a lot of struggling, Jack finally managed to pull his geometry book out by force. Maybe he should try to get the mess under control, before it would end up with him ruining something in there?

He closed the locker, took his bag pack over his shoulder and headed towards his designated classroom. He hated geometry. Why did he absolutely have to have that subject anyway? He had even asked already at the office if he couldn't take another class, but he had gotten a straight out no. In all honestly, sometimes he felt as if he hadn't been in school for three-hundred years or something, he really was that bad to the subject.

He opened the door to his classroom, and headed for the seats all in the back. With a quick move he pulled up his hoodie and sat down when he reached his usual seat, not caring for the other in class (especially not the girls who were drooling over him), while trying to mentally prepare for a whole hour together with his most hated class. He propped up his chin on his hand while his elbow was resting on his desk, as he looked out the window, where yesterday's sleet had been replaced with heavy rain. Not really something that helped on his mood, though he knew it would change in just a few minutes, but he couldn't help but feel annoyed that he had work today at Starbucks. He liked his job, so that was not the problem. The problem was some of the costumers. They all wanted their coffee as quick as possible, and sometimes it felt as if they took a war to simply order a latte or whatever they wanted. Not to mention that his boss was an ass, but he had to deal with him to pay the rent, so he just held all the things he wanted to yell to him for himself. However the man was already preparing some event for the upcoming holiday, and had talked about all of the employees having to dress up when Halloween arrived, though Jack wasn't much for having to dress up, no matter how fun it might seem for anyone else. He was a prankster yes, but not one to dress up.

His thoughts fell on the weird group of people he had seen in the weekend. Their costumes had been pretty amazing, so maybe he should see if he could find a costume like theirs somewhere, since he knew he would be forced into some costume anyway? If he had to be dressed up, then why not have a great one? Maybe he should be dressed up like some sort of vampire or maybe the King of Nightmares?

Jack cut off his line of thoughts; a King of Nightmares? Where did that even come from? He frowned and looked at his desk as something started to stir in the back of his head, like some sort of suppressed memory; a dark figure with yellow orbs that feeded on the fears of children from the nightmares of which he spread? A picture appeared for his inner vision of a tall man, dressed in a black rope, with black hair, yellow eyes and grey skin, stood in a scenery of snow, in one hand holding a shepherds hook, while in the other holding a hummingbird fairy.

The teen shook his head and pushed the thought aside as he felt an upcoming headache. Y_ou better control that imagination of yours, Jackson_, Jack thought to himself. Why had he even made up such a character in his head, that sounded a bit like the Boogeyman, and just why in the world had he had to give him a shepherds hook and a fairy anyway?

The door opened and their geometry teacher, Mr. Sanders, entered the room, pulling Jack out of his thoughts. He was an old man, slightly build and so bold that his scalp was reflecting the light from the lamps.

Jack didn't like him and he didn't keep it a secret from anybody, not even Mr. Sanders himself. Right from the first day the two of them simply couldn't get along, and it had resulted in a whole lot of yelling from Mr. Sanders' side, not to mention lots of pranks from Jack as payback. The good thing by being Jack was that he always made sure there was no evidence to prove he was the one behind the pranks, so Mr. Sanders could never do anything about it other than be suspicious whenever a new prank was successful. Today there were no excuse; as soon as Mr. Sanders sat down on his chair, it broke and sent the old man to the floor with a yelp, and notes flying everywhere. Some of the students gasped, while others, mostly the boys, began laughing, there including Jack, who was desperately trying to hide a wide smirk.

"JACKSON!" Mr. Sanders exclaimed the moment he was on his feet again, walking furiously towards Jack at the back of the class, who now was dangerously close to explode with detained laughter. Every student watched amused as Mr. Sanders slammed his hands onto Jack's desk, looking Jack directly in the eye. "You're taking it to far! Your pranks are even starting to hurt school property!"

Jack looked hurt at him with big innocent eyes, desperately struggling not to laugh. "Who, me?" He laid a hand over his heart as if he was truly hurt and surprised at the accusation, impressed at him-self that he hadn't burst out laughing the moment he had opened his mouth. "You're hurting me, Mr. Sanders. Here I thought we were friends, and then you're accusing me for such a thing! You're hurting my little innocent heart."

Mr. Sanders sneered, showing his yellow, nicotine affected teeth. "I know it was you, don't you even think you can get away with it this time around; you ruined school property!"

"I most certainly did no such thing," Jack said, sounded as offended as possible. "I came into this class as the last man, so there is no way I could have time to pull off such a thing; I'm completely innocent in this accusation."

The furious man was about to open his mouth when one of the girls interrupted him; "he's saying the truth, Mr. Sanders. He came in just before you did, so there's no way he could have been behind it. The chair was probably just waiting for an excuse to collapse."

Jack had to fight against a grin that was desperately threatening to show on his lips, when he saw the expression on the old man's face, but he knew that if he lost his act then he would get busted. "See," Jack said and tilted his head and made a saddened expression. "I'm totally innocent, and then you're standing there, yelling at me, pointing fingers at me, and telling me that I'm the criminal; I think I may start to cry." He faked that he wiped a tear away from the corner of his eye. A few of the other students were fighting against laughing while others were simply rolling their eyes over the stupidity in that act, while one or two of the girls sighed dreamingly.

"Someday you won't be that lucky, mark my words; someday you will, and I know you will, make a mistake that will make sure you will get into trouble, and trust me, Jackson Overland Frost, when I catch you red-handed then I will personally make sure you get detention every day for the rest of your school year." His threatening voice had silenced the class. The students waited expectantly for Jack's response, wondering what he would come up with to counter attack.

Jack knew that they only noticed him was because of his pranks, or when a girl or two glanced at him – didn't he make any pranks then they wouldn't even be looking his way. It was like a search for attention, he had been social outcast right from day one, and since he didn't have any friends at school, though he had only been there for a month, then why not simply make a few pranks instead? They were creative and he got some attention, and after the prank was done, he would be on his own again. It was not that he hadn't tried to make any friends; it was just that he felt as if there was a gap between him and the other students that made sure he couldn't get along with them as much as he wanted to, not to forget that most of what they were talking about was something Jack couldn't be part of – not just movies, books and hobbies, but also some of the words they were using; just what in the world was SWAG and YOLO?

He even felt as if he had lived a complete other life before he had come to this school. Not just because that he had a hard time with basically every subject at school (seriously, he really felt as if he had never gone to school in his entire life), and that it felt as if his memories from before he came to this school felt as if they had just been randomly made from a life he wasn't even sure if he ever had lived, not to mention that his family didn't want to see them, and he could barely even remember their faces nor how many they were; all he pretty much remembered was that they lived in Oregon, but also because he sometimes caught himself in trying to create snow with his hands. Was that weird that he had it like that? Maybe he was still just stressed of living on his own, having work and still not have made any friends? It was possible, wasn't it?

"You know; if I agreed with you, we would both be wrong," Jack responded nonchalant to Mr. Sanders, making the old man's eyes twitch, and with his fingers made the _I-am-watching-you_ hand-sign, before he stamped his way back to his desk.

Jack sat with a wide grin as he watched Mr. Sanders madly start the session, scowling at Jack, who now had plugged in his headset and sat and heard music in the middle of the class, without the teacher noticing. Every time he watched Jack, Jack simply waved to him. Not that Jack cared for anything happening in class; all he cared for at the moment was the music in his ears, and the rain falling from the sky, as he looked out the window. Of course he had forgotten his umbrella today of all days, but that didn't ruin his mood. After a successful prank his mood had lightened, and maybe a five hour work day with unthankful costumers wouldn't be that bad?

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The bell finally rang after what seemed like forever, signaling that class had ended, and Jack was the first to pack his things and was out of the door before Mr. Sanders could get to him, which he knew he would try to. He would always try to get his hands on Jack to try to make him confess, but Jack had soon learned to be the first one to get out of class, after the first couple of times where he had been withheld by the bald man. The only reason Mr. Sanders had a suspicion that it was Jack, was that the pranking started the moment Jack sat his foot into the school.

PE was the next subject on the list for today, so while Jack headed for the changing rooms, he began to wonder about how he next should prank the old man; needles on the chair maybe, or would that be too obvious? There was a risk in him seeing them before he would sit down on his chair, and he would probably start checking the chair before he sat down on it again for a while. Not to mention that was a bit childish. Maybe he should put some oil on the floor? The outcome would be pretty funny, but it might be too risky to do such a stunt, considering how the school was so soppy about fire risk and all, so that might not be a good idea, not even if it was regular sunflower oil. But … Jack couldn't help but give it to himself, that the sight of Mr. Sanders slipping on the floor was extremely tempting. Maybe he should see if he could smuggle a bottle of oil out from cooking class next time he had that, and then see if he could get it back after he had prepared his prank to hide his traces?

He chuckled to himself as he saw Mr. Sanders slip on the oil for his inner vision, as he headed to the changing rooms in another building. He had to write that prank onto the list of pranks he was planning to do against the man, not to mention those he was planning for the rest of the school; tomorrow he was planning something with the school's mascot uniform. He had planned it for a few days now, after _accidently_ getting a grip on a teacher's schedule of who was occupying the gym and when, meaning he knew basically everything about the place, and tomorrow he had an hour before the freshmen would be in the gym. He may only have been at the school for a few weeks, but you could probably say that he ruled the school from the shadows as the Prankster King. It was a rather impressive achievement if he had to say so himself.

When he had come to the changing room, their teacher announced that, due to bad weather conditions, they had to be indoors for gym, not that any of the guys complained, the weather was horrible, but they still had to get to the actual gym, which meant that they still had to get out into the rain before they could do any sort of class.

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Baby Tooth was flying through Burgess in search of Jack. Mama Tooth had said they needed to search for him, since he had now officially been gone for about a week, if not longer, so Baby Tooth had taken charge of searching Jack's home town in case he would return. The only problem she had was the weather. It had started to rain, and though Baby Tooth was a magical creature, then rain meant that her wings would clasp together, making sure she couldn't fly. Normally you wouldn't believe such a thing to happen to a fairy, but it did rather often in fact.

The rain began to fall worse than before, making the little fairy desperate to find shelter until the worst of the rain had passed. She didn't want to be stuck in the rain for far too long and catch a cold, that would not just ruin her health, but it would also mean that she wouldn't be able to help out in the search for her friend for a while.

She remembered clearly her Mama's orders; "_only search for Jack, Baby Tooth, you don't have to worry about the teeth, your sisters will take care of that. If you see him, which I hope you will, then you should tell him what an idiot he has been for disappearing."_ Mama Tooth calling Jack an idiot had come as a shock, considering that she was always so gentle, and never called anyone anything like that, but Baby Tooth could tell that she was on edge. It didn't look like Jack to just disappear; sure enough he was a free spirit and was used to be on his own, but during the past two years, he had been close to the guardians and actually come to visit rather often, as if he needed to be confirmed in that he wasn't alone anymore. Not that any of the tooth fairies complained; seeing him and his teeth was always something that brightened their day whenever he came around.

A heavy raindrop bombed into Baby Tooth's back, making her lose her balance in the air and crash-land on a grassy sports field outside the high school gym, as her wings got too heavy for her to use. With her head and body covered in mud, she got to her feet, wiping the substanse off of her face. She needed to get to somewhere dry, so her wings would work again, not to mention that she had to make sure a cold wouldn't come, plus that she needed a bath now.

With her small legs carrying her, she fought her way through the tall grass of the grassy field. Though it for humans would be short, then it was tall enough to reach to the small fairy's elbows, making it almost impossible for her to get through, not to forget that her wings slowed her down by being tangled into the grass, and the earth was being all muddy from the rain, so she sank into it, giving her even more trouble with getting through. This was one of the few situations where she actually wished she was a big fairy like Mama Tooth, but after lots of struggle, she eventually managed to get out of the tall grass, and ran over the pavement to a building in hope to gain some shelter from the rain. She leaned up against the wall, trying to not be hit by the heavy rain which now had covered the whole ground in water – it was literally raining cats and dogs at the moment, which didn't really help her situation.

A noise caught the wet and shivering fairy's attention, making her look up and see a brunette teen come running towards her with a bag over his head, all dressed in gym clothes. She watched him as he ran, wondering why he didn't just use an umbrella like any other human did, but why was he out in the rain anyway? Nobody at their full senses would be out in this weather, well except her, but she didn't really count, now did she?

The teen passed her and headed for a door a meter or two beside her, and disappeared through it, unknowing of the small fairy who was running after him, knowing that if she didn't manage to get through the door before it closed, then she would have to stay out in the rain until it stopped, and that could take hours, besides, whatever was behind that door had to be warm enough for her to get dry sooner or later.

Baby Tooth ran to the door as fast as her small legs could carry her, but right as she was near it, she fell over her own legs, and the door slammed shut, leaving her in the rain with disbelieve written across her face. Great, now what? She couldn't possibly open a door that, first and for all, was way too heavy for her to even be able to open, and secondly, then the handle was way too high for her to reach. Had it only been a glass door, then it wouldn't have been a problem, then she could just have morphed through it with no problem what so ever, but of course this wasn't the case.

She got to her feet and was about to turn around to head for somewhere else in search for shelter, when the door opened again, and the teen from before leaned out of the door opening, his chocolate brown eyes looking at the spot where she had been when he had run past her. He looked confused at the spot, but eventually shrugged and pulled himself back in and closed the door, unknowingly giving Baby Tooth passage to the inside of the building.

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Jack opened the door which he had just come in through and stared at the ground a meter or two away. Had it just been his imagination? He had been sure that there had been a hummingbird on the ground, but it was gone now, as if it had never been there to begin with. He shrugged after having scanned the surrounding area, and pushed the thought aside as he pulled himself back in. Had it really been a hummingbird, then it had probably flown away when he had passed it, though he had to feel a bit sad for it – to be stuck in that weather wasn't exactly something that seemed that appealing, and it wasn't like the bird had snuck in through the door when he had opened it again.

He shook his head like a dog, making the rainwater from his hair sprinkle all over the place, before he headed through some double doors and into PE class, not noticing the thankful wave from the small fairy behind him.

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**-|- Thanks to _Taranodongirl1_ for making me notice errors in the chapter, and make it more interesting by pointing out some stuff I should've put in it!**


	3. Hummingbirds

**Thumbs up for taking a ball to the face!**

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A yelp escaped Jacks as a volleyball planted itself right in his face, and made him lose balance and fall to the ground. The sudden impact between head and ball had made some of the students gasp, while others were laughing of Jack's bad luck. _What great friends I have_, he thought sarcastically and rubbed his now sore nose, after having checked whether or not it was bleeding, which, luckily enough, wasn't the case. He'd bet that his whole face was red now or something like that, thanks to that stupid volleyball. "Get up and back in the game, Frost; if you stay on the ground for too long, someone might mistake you as the floor." Jack glared at his gym teacher, Mr. Jones, who stood with his arms crossed while tapping his foot on the ground like some sort of angry kangaroo. He was muscular, tall and had dirty blonde hair, eyes in a black color, and had the usual flute hung around his neck, only waiting to be used.

"Oh I don't know about getting up," Jack deadpanned, and put his hands behind his head in a casual manner. "I thought the floor as really comfortable, so I was thinking about taking a nap right here." Actually he really wanted to skip PE, so there wasn't much lie in what he said. He just wanted to pack up his things and find somewhere to sleep instead of having to be stuck in this gym. Why the hatred to PE, you ask? Well, the answer was to be spotted on the opponents team, and the answer was named Adam Cooker, a largely build guy with gross grayish hair, who was a real ass, and was always trying to hit Jack with whichever equipment they got for class. It was utterly annoying, not to mention that Jack had gotten a few bruises thanks to him, and the only reason Cooker was after Jack in the first place was because at the first PE class Jack had had with him, Jack had accidently hit him in the crotch with a hockey stick, causing great laughter from the others. Not really the best move to make when transferring to a new school, but it had been by total accident; Jack simply hadn't seen that his crotch was in the way for his swing, and since that, he had been after Jack in every PE class. Outside of class Cooker ignored him completely, knowing that he could only hurt Jack in PE, by simply saying, '_it was an accident_', '_I didn't see him_', '_Frost has to get better reflexes, if he had then he wouldn't get hurt_'. He hated it.

Mr. Jones rolled his eyes at the response he had gotten from his student. He didn't mind Jack, he was good at most sports or he would have been if it weren't because the other students always were trying to hit him with the ball, but sometimes Jack's comments were just a bit too stupid for his likening. "Get up or I'll give you ten laps around the gym." When Jack didn't react, he added, "outside, in the merciless rain."

Jack hmpf'ed as he got to his feet, and began dusting his butt off from whichever stuff might have chosen his butt as a new home while he had been on the floor. All he wanted was to get this over with so he could get to work.

The volleyball match didn't end that well for Jack's team – they lost pretty much every match even though Jack was trying his hardest. It was just hard to actually win, when it seemed like the others shot after him instead of actually playing, as if it weren't bad enough with Cooker always after him, then the others absolutely had to follow his lead. Why did he absolutely have to be after Jack anyway? He had said he was sorry already, so Cooker should have been mature enough to accept it and then that was that, but no, he absolutely had to continue pestering him whenever he got the chance in PE.

Class finally ended half an hour later and Jack helped Mr. Jones pack up the equipment, not wanting to be in the changing room while Cooker was there. He already knew the routine; Cooker would try to get the last piece of revenge, or whatever he called it now, on Jack, but Jack had learned that if he helped Mr. Jones out, then Cooker would eventually leave because he got tired of waiting, and then he wouldn't touch Jack until the next PE, so basically Jack had a schedule in a schedule.

When Jack finally was done helping Mr. Jones, he headed to the exit with his bag over his shoulder, but stopped as something at the floor near the door to the toilets caught his attention; a little soaked hummingbird sat in a pile of muddy paper towels on the floor.

Seems like he hadn't seen wrong when he had headed to class, but what in the world was a humming bird doing in Burgess, not to mention in a gym, out of all places? Weren't they supposed to be in tropical climates or something like that, unless it had escaped from the pet shop? Could you even buy hummingbirds as pets legally? He watched the hummingbird for a while, wondering just how it had gotten there at all in the first place, and then at this time of the year, when there were no flowers anymore it could feed on. He should probably help it outside, since there was no way it would be able to live in this sweat reeking gym by itself, not to mention that it wasn't positive if there would come someone who would help it out later that day.

Carefully, to not make it fly off, he tiptoed towards it, not gaining its attention as he did so. He lowered himself to his knees as slow and soundless as possible, like a predator lurking in on its prey right before it would jump out and attack, however, in this case the predator would be helping instead. The hummingbird began to stir in the nest of paper towels, making Jack instantly snatch out his hands, trapping the bird between his palms, earning a surprised chirp from it, which almost sounded like when you squeezed a rubber duck.

Jack came to his feet again with the bird in his hands, struggling to get free, but Jack was too strong for it to be able to free itself. He hissed on it to make it quiet down, though knowing it was no use; birds couldn't understand humans. He couldn't help but feel sorry for it, knowing it must be terrified of being trapped by someone at least a hundred times its own size, and not be able to escape, but at least it would be free in just a few moments

He walked outside of the gym and into the rain, before he opened his hands so the bird could fly away. It turned its head against him with eyes wide in disbelieve, before looking up at the rain, and looked back at him again. Why didn't it fly away?

The hummingbird got to its feet and tried to flap with its wings, but it couldn't seem to get altitude, and after struggling to fly for a while, it stopped trying, and looked at him again with big eyes, almost as if it was giving up. "Don't tell me you can't fly," Jack said. The bird startled by the sound of his voice, its eyes wider than before and disbelieve written across its face. Was it weird that he thought that the bird had human features? "Is it because you've broken a wing or is it the rain that –" He stopped himself as the bird nodded to the last. Did – did it understand him? No. There was no way that was possible. Birds didn't understand human language, it was basics of nature.

"What are you doing there standing in the rain?" Mr. Jones came out from the door behind Jack, looking confused at him. "Shouldn't you be in the changing room already?"

Jack looked at him and showed him the bird, since maybe he could tell him what to do with it, "I found this hummingbird inside, but I don't think it can fly, because of the rain or something."

Mr. Jones looked at Jacks hands with a raised eyebrow. "I think the bird had flown away already."

"What?" Jack asked confused. The bird was right there in his hands, so why would he say that it had flown away? Jack got eye-contact with the bird, before he looked back up at his teacher. "But it's sitting right here," he lifted the bird up to show him, but all he gained was a look that told him that Mr. Jones thought he had gone mental or something.

"That volleyball must have hit you harder than anticipated," he said thoughtful and crossed his arms. "There's no hummingbird Jack, all you're holding in your hands is air. Why don't you go get changed and head for the nurses office to get a checkup?"

Jack looked at the bird in his hands. Could it really be that he was imagining it was there? It was plausible, why else would a hummingbird be this far up north? But on the other hand, he could feel its weight in his hands, felt it tremble and the warmth it emitted. Could he really have such a real imagination? "Yeah, you're probably right," he agreed with his teacher, though he wasn't sure whether he would do it or not, when he headed off to the changing rooms in the other building, still with the bird in his hands. That was just weird. Was Mr. Jones going blind? There was no way the bird wasn't real. He let a finger carefully poke the bird, feeling that it was indeed solid, so it couldn't be a part of his imagination, now could it? He even heard its chirps echo against the walls in the changing room, where Cooker luckily weren't present. _Mr. Jones was probably just teasing me_, Jack thought as he began to take off his clothes to take a shower, leaving the bird on the bench, after having told it to stay, which it amazingly enough did, though it looked away from him while he took a shower and got dressed, almost as if it was embarrassed. No, that was just his imagination. Birds didn't get embarrassed of seeing naked humans.

When Jack was all dressed again, he squatted and looked at the bird that were looking back at him with a tilted head and a curious look. They didn't do anything for a while other than to stare at each other. There was still a lot of time before Jack had to go to the last period, so taking the time to study the bird for a moment wouldn't hurt anyone. He carefully let a hand approach the bird, but it didn't do anything to get out of reach; all it did was to watch him with big eyes. He poked it before he studied the wings it had on its back. They seemed more like insect wings than actual hummingbird wings, all transparent in a purple nuance.

He frowned before he took out his phone, and searched the net for a picture of an actual hummingbird, suddenly wanting to find out what species of hummingbird the one in front of him was. It wasn't normal for them to have insect-like wings, so maybe it was a special species?

'_Hummingbird with insect wings'_, he tasted in before searching Google Pictures to find it. "Well, you most certainly don't look like that one," Jack stated as he saw the first picture on the search page. He scrolled while he shiftily looked from the bird on the bench, to the birds on the screen, having to admit that some of the pictures were rather impressive. He studied the bird in front of him for a bit, before tasting a new search, but was let down as there was nothing that could tell him the species. "Seems like you don't really exist as far as I can tell," he finally said after fifteen minutes of search, as he put his phone back in his pocket.

The bird shrugged and nodded a bit, as an answer to what he had said.

Wait… it _shrugged_?

"What the –" Jack begun and narrowed his eyes and looked closer at it. Birds didn't shrug. He studied the bird curiously with his fingers. After a minute of studying it, he stared at it with eyes wide and disbelieve written across his face. _Maybe the volleyball really did hit me harder than I thought_. He got to his feet, his eyes not leaving the bird, before he stood in front of the mirror in the small bathroom, and looking himself in the eyes. "Okay, you have to control that imagination of yours, Jackson; else it would seem that you are going mental." He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a short moment, before he looked himself in the eyes again, with a weird look on his face, a mix of disbelieve, confusion and nervousness. One of his eyes was even twitching. "It seems there is a fairy in the room, but relax you aren't going mental, it's all normal, it's just a creature that shouldn't even exist." He said the whole thing as if trying to convince himself, before he sent himself a wide crazy-looking smile. Fairies weren't real and everybody knew that; only small children thought they were. But just why was he mistaking a _freaking_ _fairy_ for a hummingbird? It had arms and a human-like face, despite its long needle-like beak, plus small legs with feet.

He stared at himself for a long while, before he pulled himself together, gathered every bit of courage he held, and turned to face the hummingbird fairy. It was gone. He looked around the room for it, before he crossed his arms, having a weird expression on his face again, before he stated; "yup, I'm going mental."

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Jack pulled on his apron and headed for the counter, where he was supposed to start serving coffee for today's costumers. The rain was still falling heavily from the dark sky, and it had even started to thunder, so most of the costumers that would normally have come by now stayed away, while the few who came to get their coffee stayed for as long as they could, to not get wet when they had to go home.

While he was making a cappuccino for one of the few customers, who had dared to fight their way to the place, Jack watched as his boss, Harry Schneider, sat at a table in the corner, talking to one of his female employees, Angela, about what he was planning for Halloween. He kept rambling about the decorations, the special cookies which the HQ was planning on selling, and, of course, how he wanted all of them to be dressed up for the holiday.

A smirk formed on Jack's lips as he saw the expression on Angela's face. She was just as tired of their boss as Jack was, so while Schneider was talking about all his plans, she was sitting as a nice little girl, and simply replied with "yes", "aha", and "I see", while nodding as if she found it what he was planning interesting. She probably did, Jack didn't know her that well so whether she liked Halloween or not, he couldn't tell, but he could see that she was all tensed up from having to be stuck with Schneider and his many, _many_ plans. He made way too big of a deal out of Hollow's Eve, he was even already wearing Halloween themed clothes, which made him stand out from the crowd.

When the costumer had paid for their coffee, Jack leaned up the counter, making a bit of his homework until the next costumer would come along. He had to make five pages of his geometry book, which probably was Mr. Sanders' way of doing payback for the chair prank, and that had not fallen into good soil with the other students. They had sent death glares at Jack when Mr. Sanders had announced the amount of homework they were getting. Had Jack mentioned he couldn't stand that man? Jack tapped his pencil on the paper, trying to figure how to solve the problem, though he might as well just stop trying, since he knew it would be wrong anyway. He sighed and wrote an answer before he began with a new one, who was just as hard as the previous one. Hadn't Mr. Sanders said they were easy? What a liar!

A costumer came walking up to the counter and ordered a double shot latte, which forced Jack to get away from the homework. "You're having trouble with school work?" The man asked casually as his eyes fell on the open books by the cookie plate, while Jack was preparing for his order.

"You bet," Jack simply said and gave a shrug as he held the dark liquid into a mug. "Geometry isn't exactly my strong side."

The man chuckled at the response, and read Jacks answers to the problems. "I can tell. By the way, the first answer is 395, not 51."

Jack looked at him with surprise, as he was about to add some milk into the latte. "Thanks."

"No problem." He took his drink after paying Jack, and sat down at the table near the windows, where he took out a newspaper and began to read; meanwhile Jack corrected his mistake in his homework. In all honesty it didn't come as a shock that Jack had given such a wrong answer considering that he almost didn't really remember anything from his school not even the basics of math.

After two hours with no costumers at the counter, and non-sop school work from Jack's side, he finally closed the book with a sigh and headed towards the back of the store to prop it into his backpack. Despite he had done what he could with his math, he knew that the only answer that could possibly be right, was the one he had gotten help with, meaning that Mr. Sanders would be satisfied when he saw Jack's work, knowing that he could stamp on him for being the worst student to his subject. Jack knew he would speak about it to the entire class, making a fool out of Jack. As if he didn't have it hard enough already; first geometry with Mr. Sanders, then PE, where Cooker hit him with a volleyball right in the face a few times, and then there was the fairy, that apparently only Jack had been able to see.

Jack hadn't gone to the nurse's office as Mr. Jones had suggested, but instead skipped a class and headed for work, knowing that after almost having put himself in a state of being mental, where he had sat on the bench in the changing room, and tried to tell himself that it was the volleyball's fault that he were seeing things, then it wouldn't be the best idea to stay in school, plus he earned some extra money and would get his thoughts on other things than magical creatures.

He sighed, and for just a moment he wondered where the fairy had gone to, before he suddenly hit his head into his locker, making a loud noise at the impact. What was he thinking? He was a seventeen year old guy, who was thinking about fairies, for crying out loud! Guys that age shouldn't be thinking about fairies, unless they were playing with their five year old sisters, and since Jack was neither with his sister nor playing with any five year olds, so thinking about that sort of stuff was out of the question. "If I keep on thinking on that I'm going to a psychologist," he mumbled to himself, though he knew he would never be able to afford one, and he couldn't ask his family about money. They didn't want to talk to him, and considering that he barely remembered anything about them then he might have blocked a lot of his memories out about them, meaning that he could have a tragic past of some sort. Wasn't that what happened when you had tried something horrible? That you blocked out most of the memories?

Jack glanced at the watch on the wall, when he finally pulled himself together to go back to the counter where some sudden, very unsatisfied, costumers were waiting to give their orders stood. It was 6 PM, meaning there were still four hours left and he would be able to get home and get some sleep and something to eat, not to forget to prepare for the prank he had planned out for the school's mascot the next day.

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A tired Jack slammed the door shut behind him, and shook his head just like he had done at PE to get all the water out of it. He was utterly exhausted after such a long day, not to mention that he was soaked to the skin now, thanks to his lack of an umbrella, which had meant he had had to go all the way from Starbucks and home with nothing to protect him from the rain. Plus the time was 11:45 PM, so it was no wonder he was fatigue.

With a swift move he threw his backpack to the ground and started to undress, since he didn't want to make the whole floor of his apartment wet. When he was down to only his boxers, he threw the wet clothing into the bathroom, took a towel and headed to his closet for some pajamas, while he dried himself up.

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Baby Tooth opened the pocket of the backpack in which she had been hiding in (and accidently fallen asleep in) ever since she had been in the changing room. She didn't really know what she should have thought of her situation back then. Of course she had been startled of suddenly be trapped in a pair of hands, but even more as she realized it was a teenager who was able to see her, which was really rare. Not to mention seeing a teenage guy naked for the first time.

She crawled out and landed on the floor, before looked around to figure just where in the world she now was. Apparently she was in a two roomed apartment where the only door, lead into the bathroom. There were almost no furniture in the main room; an unmade bed was placed beside an almost empty bookcase, a single chair stood at an old and worn desk with a laptop on, which stood by the window, and a closet stood beside the main door. There was a really small kitchen occupying one end of the room, which basically was two kitchen counters, a microwave, a small fridge, a sink and a trash can. That was it, well, if you didn't count the mess on the floor.

The small fairy noted the teenage guy from before at the closet, exhausted beginning to get dressed. Did he do nothing else than change clothes?

She sat down on the floor in hiding, with both legs and arms crossed while she watched him cautiously as he got into his pajamas. Normally she wouldn't do this sort of thing, but there was something about that guy that made her instincts tickle, which normally never happened. He resembled Jack so much it was scary, the only problem however was, while Jack's hair was as white as snow, his eyes crystal blue and his skin icy pale, then this guy had both chocolate brown hair and eyes, plus his skin wasn't nearly as pale as Jack's. Yes, he did look like the spitting image of Jack despite the difference in skin-, hair- and eye- color, he even had the same voice as her Jack, but this guy was a mortal. Was he possibly some great- times eleven grandchild or something from Jack's sister? Unless... Nah, it couldn't be. Jack wasn't a mortal.

The teenager pulled a bag out of the kitchen cabinet, when he had gotten into his pajamas, and began to stir around in it, creating a lot of noise as he did so, while he with a serious mime mumbled the different items it held inside. "… Sardines, old smelly cheese – maybe I should put that one back in the fridge – vinegar, stink-bombs, surströming…" He stopped mumbling as he pulled a can of fish out of the bag with a Swedish flag on. "How did that end up here?" He looked thoughtful at it for a moment, before he shrugged and put it back into the bag, and put the bag back into the cabinet, while he took the stink-bombs to his backpack, meanwhile mumbling something about it being it being too risky to do it with surstöming, since it would be hard to get away with the evidences.

Baby Tooth noted the mischievous grin in his eyes, as his thoughts went to something he thought funny. She had to admit that the more she looked at him, the more she felt as if it really was Jack himself. What a funny coincidence that he had such a character in his family that reminded so much about him, after so many years.

With a yawn the teen went to his bed and threw him-self onto it, not caring to cover himself with the duvet as he fell asleep.

The small fairy stretched her wings and flew to the guy, when his breath had evened out and become slow, signalizing that he was fast asleep. She landed on the bedside and watched him as he slept, knowing that that was what Mama Tooth enjoyed that the most about her job; to see children no matter how old they got, sleep peacefully was oddly calming and created some sort of inner peace and happiness for the tooth fairies.

She sighed with a smile, before she flew up and looked at the poster that hang on the wall above his bed; it showed a beautiful snowy winter scenery, where a pack of light gray wolves were standing in the middle of the scenery, like the beautiful creatures they were. It was the only picture in the room, and it was almost embarrassing to see how perfect it was hanging on the wall.

Baby Tooth went to the window and landed, while she was looking up at the raining sky, wondering whether or not she had been lucky enough to find the real Jack, but if she wasn't, then she wished upon Manny that he was safe. Right now she wanted to keep an eye out for that Jack Frost-looking mortal because she had to be sure if it really were Jack or not. If it was, then how would you explain that he was a mortal? But it could still just be that he was some very distant related family member.

As she watched the night rain fall heavily against the window, she fell asleep and didn't see the dark sand that swirled around the sleeping teen's head, forcing him to whimper in his sleep.


	4. Just a Dream

**So, every people out there, here's the next chapter. Just got to warn you that Jack might seem rather depressed, and goes into depths with his historical knowledge! WUHU!**

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Jack woke up with a headache as his phone's alarm set off, while loudly playing some song, which was a way too energetic for an early morning. With his head still buried into his pillow, he reached out with a heavy arm and stopped the alarm, where after he grumpily got up from his bed, all groggy and stiff in his body. He hadn't slept well at all, and had been haunted by nightmares the entire night. He couldn't remember them however, but all he knew was that they had been bad.

Tired moans escaped his lips as he dragged himself over the floor to the bathroom, not wanting to go to school at all. School was created to torture the living out of the students. That was also what studying was created for – it was a contraction of the two words 'student' and 'dying'. Such a genius he had been for figuring that out.

A splash was heard from the kitchen sink as he passed, making him stop up, and watch as the hummingbird fairy, from the day before, sat in his sink, with lots of bubbles in the water, and had a great time playing around in the warm water. It had even taken his scrubber and used it as some sort of floating device, where it at the moment lay on with its arms behind its head, as if it owned the entire place. Jack was too tired to think clearly, so all he did was mumble a "good morning", before he headed to the bathroom, not even wondering why the fairy was in his apartment in the first place.

He groggily turned on the shower, and while he waited for the water to heat up to some sort of acceptable temperature, he went back out to the kitchen, and opened the fridge only to find it empty. He grunted as his stomach started to growl, and searched the cabinets for something eatable. He hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning, which meant that he was basically starving at the moment, and would eat anything he found. Eating anything from his stinky-bag however, was out of the question – the items that bag held was meant to be used in case he needed something to make a stink bomb or whatever he could do with what he had in it. With an annoyed frown he found a can of backed beans, as the only thing he had home of food. Not really something that sounded the most appealing to eat in the early morning.

"Don't look at me like that," he mumbled to the fairy who was staring at him with judging eyes, because of his choice of food. "I don't have anything else since there simply is nothing else; besides, I'm broke at the moment…"

The fairy rolled its eyes, as Jack tired went back into the bathroom for a shower, despite his utter dislike for water. The water wasn't even warm yet, but he still went in, standing with closed eyes as the chilly water fell down his head and eased the headache he had. What a great way to start a day; a headache and no other food in storage than a can of baked beans, not to forget a night with nightmares and a shower that didn't want to get any warmer. Normally he liked things chilly and cold, but lately he had been in need for warmth, probably because of the colder temperatures outside.

He sighed and added shampoo to his hair, while speculating whether or not he should actually do the pranking today, since it didn't seem like his day could start of any worse. He might get caught if his speculations for the upcoming day were correct, and if that happened, then his title as the Prankster King was useless. The whole idea of doing pranks was that you didn't get caught in doing what you did, at least not unless you knew you could get away with it, like if you were pranking a friend or a family member, but if it was at school and it hurt the property, then there was no way you could simply get away. Once, with one of the first pranks Jack had made at Burgess High, he had been only seconds from being caught in the principal's office when he was placing some smelly old cheese in the ventilation system; hadn't he thrown himself out of the window, the moment the principal was opening the door, and hid himself as if his life depended on it, then he would have been caught red-handed. Despite the shock Jack had gained by the sudden interruption, and the bruises from jumping out of the window, he hadn't stopped pranking. It had actually had the opposit effect; he had done it every day since, whether it was small pranks or some who needed planning, then he always did it. It was like he was born with the talent to prank people without being noticed in the progress.

Only dressed in boxers and with a towel hanging around his neck, Jack got out of the bathroom once he was done, and walked to the waiting breakfast on the counter, his hair still dripping.

He watched the fairy, which at the moment was drying its feathers in one of the tea towels, while he began to eat his baked beans straight from the can with a spoon. He was still a bit groggy from waking up, so he somehow felt as if he was still dreaming. "Want some beans?" He offered and reached the can towards the fairy. It looked at it for a moment, before it took a single bean and began to eat with him, its eyes not leaving him for one second, almost as if it expected him to do something. "You might want to wash your hands after though," he added as he took a glass of water and began to drink, only to spit all out again the moment he realized what he was doing; having a casual conversation with a fairy in the early morning, as if it was the most natural thing in the world!

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The locker door slammed shut as Jack closed it, trying desperately to ignore the fairy that kept flying around his head to gain his attention as he headed to his third period. All the way from his apartment to now he had tried to ignore it, writing it off as a part of his imagination, or as one of the first signs on that he was losing his sanity (it had showed to be harder than anticipated to ignore it during the past hours). None of the other students had noticed the fairy, so he was now certain that he was the only one who could see it, which wasn't really helping his situation; was it possible that the impact with the volleyball yesterday could have caused his brain to hallucinate for this long?

He went to his classroom and sat down on one of the seats in the back, where he began to browse the web on his phone, to distract his attention from the hummingbird hybrid. His normal happy-go-lucky mood was gone thanks to the lack of sleep, not to forget that his headache was only getting worse, making him wonder if he should just have stayed at home instead, since he really didn't feel like his day could get any worse than it already was.

The fairy made a frustrated chirp before it sat on his desk with its arms crossed, while it stared at him with irritated eyes, not pleased with him continuing to ignoring it; after he had realized he had been sharing his breakfast with it, he had right away pretended it didn't exist. It had only made it try harder to get his attention, and during the first two periods the fairy had done basically everything to get his attention. It had even bothered one of the teachers, and no matter how much Jack had tried to ignore it, he hadn't been able not to find it amusing.

Jack continued to pretend the fairy didn't exist until the teacher, who was a _very_ old man named Mr. Hopkins, came in and started class, forcing Jack pack away his phone and find his text- and notebook. Though he tried to concentrate on his class, he couldn't help but glance at the offended fairy now and then, and seeing it was staring at him with displease written across its face. Why did it have to look like he was a horrible person for ignoring it? There was no fun in that at all.

He sighed and wrote down what was being written on the blackboard, though he wasn't really paying attention. The subject was so boring, that he mentally felt he was falling asleep as his pen created words on the paper. History wasn't the most interesting subject in Jack's eyes, mostly because that most of what stood in their textbooks was about wars, as if there hadn't been anything else happening in the history of the world. It was annoying. Jack already knew everything that was to be learned about wars; Hitler and Stalin were equally bad people. WWI was started by an assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and WWII was started by Germany who lost big time, and you shouldn't even get him started on the Revolutionary Wars that had happened around the world. He knew that under every war there were people who died one way or another, there were big financial loss and destruction of the peaceful beautiful and innocent nature, all because of humans, and there would always be wars as long as there was something humans could gain from it, whether it was financial, power or land. In Jack's eyes humans were the most horrible specie of animal in existence; they thought themselves as much better than the animals they in reality were. They were the only species that was in complete domination of the planet, but instead of treating it nicely and protect it and try to live in peace, they did the exact opposite; destroyed nature, killing animals and their own kind, just because of skin color and culture. Humans were destroying themselves, but most didn't even care, yet those who did, were being looked down on by the rest.

Humans' selfishness was the main reason for war, end of story.

War was such a serious business, and Jack hated it, so instead of creating war and fight all the time, humans should try to have some fun instead, like children did nowadays when snow had fallen during the night and given them a snow day. Wouldn't it be great if disagreements could be settled with a snowball fight? Then there would be no death, and everybody would have fun in the process.

Jack frowned at his thoughts and stopped writing. He looked at the fairy that now lay on its belly resting its head in the small hands, while watching the teacher, with its small legs swinging back and forth in the air as it did. It seemed bored, not that Jack could blame it – their history teacher weren't exactly known for making his lessons interesting. Mr. Hopkins should probably start to think about retiring soon too.

With a glance at the students around him, Jack laid his head on the table and looked at the fairy. He really wanted to ignore it, but he was just as bored as it was to even bother trying, and he needed something to do – something fun that wouldn't gain too much attention, since he didn't have the energy to have to deal with anyone talking to him at the moment. He blamed the nightmare for that.

For some reason, Jack began to blow air on the fairy, making it shiver under his breath, and its feathers move. As soon as it turned its head tolook at him, he quickly looked innocently away, as if he had been concentrating on writing notes to whatever Mr. Hopkins was talking about at the time. The fairy looked away, only to be met with another blow of air from Jack, but when it looked at him, he did the same as before; pretending to be paying attention in class, trying to hold back a grin that had begun to twitch at the commissure of his lips. When they had repeated it about five times, the fairy finally turned its head fast enough to catch Jack in blowing air on it, making him almost start laughing, hadn't he caught himself in it. and covered his mouth with his hand. The fairy however laughed, creating small chirping sounds as it did, suddenly making Jack anxious that it made noises, but he soon remembered he was the only one who could both see and hear it. Well, at least he had made sure it had some fun now, instead of being bored, like he had been just a minute ago, even if it was just a fragment of his imagination. He didn't know if he should be disturbed of having an imaginary friend at the age of seventeen, knowing it was a sign of him losing his mind, but at the moment he didn't really bother to worry about it – he was both too tired and too bored to care, plus he had fun at the moment with his 'imaginary' friend, and if there was something he needed more than anything, it was to have fun.

"So tell me," Jack whispered so low that only the fairy could hear him. Despite his try to ignore it, he couldn't get himself to do it again now when he had had some fun with the little miss. It would just seem somewhat mean, even if he was losing his mind, so he decided to play along with it for a bit as if it really existed, what did he have to lose? "If I'm the only one who can see you, and I know I am, what would happen if you carried some things; would it disappear into the air or would other people still be able to see them?"

The fairy looked at him for a moment, seemingly thoughtful, before it suddenly brightened up as if it had gotten an idea.

Jack watched it as it lifted itself up into the air and flew to the desk beside Jack's, where some guy sat (Jack didn't know his name, since he hadn't bothered to try and make any friends after the first few days of school), and hovered in the air for a bit, making sure Jack was watching it. When it was sure that he was, it flew down and took an eraser from the pencil case and carried it into the air, just in eye height for the owner. The fairy tapped the unknowing guy on the forehead, making him confused look up from his notes. His expression was priceless as he, from his point of view, saw his eraser hanging in the air seemingly by itself.

Jack had to fight himself from beginning to laugh as the guy rubbed his eyes in disbelieve, but when he looked back, the eraser was already back in the pencil case and the fairy back on Jack's desk, which just made the guy stare at the eraser for a long while, trying to comprehend whether he had been imagining it or not.

The laughing grin, which had spread across Jack's lips at knowing how confused the guy must've been, disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with, and was replaced with a pale and shocked expression, as Jack realized something; if the fairy could lift objects in front of others, and they could see the object and be affected by it one way or another, then it meant that the fairy was…

"Mr. Hopkins," Jack said politely, something which was highly unusual for his character, as he raised a shaking hand into the air, gaining the attention of both the teacher and some of the students. "I don't feel so good. Actually I think I might be sick. Can I please go to the nurse's office?"

Mr. Hopkins looked surprised at Jack, apparently not used to student interrupting his lessons. He studied Jack for a moment before nodding; "you do look kind of pale. You may go; we can't have that you'll vomit in here." Jack smiled thankfully and packed his stuff before heading out of class, though on his way, Mr. Hopkins asked if he would be okay, to which Jack simply nodded. As soon as he was out, Jack headed to the nurse's office, almost stumbling over his own feet in the process.

Once he entered, he went over to the elderly nurse and stated that he felt sick, before the nurse had a chance to ask. She nodded and told him that he could just go in and rest until he felt he was better. Jack thanked her, and went into the room he had been pointed to, where a single bed were standing at the window and locked cabinets with medicine hang on the walls. He threw his bag on the ground and landed head first on the bed, moaning over his own misery.

It hadn't been a lie that he felt sick; he had done that ever since he stood up this morning, though then it had mainly been the headache he had focused on, but now it was serious, and probably more mental than physical, though he still felt like he was about to throw up. "What's going on?" Jack asked into the pillow, making his voice muffled as he spoke. He wasn't sure on what to do with him-self at the moment. Either he had lost his mind for good and stood beyond repair, or else the fairy was, no matter how little he wanted to think it, _real_.

The hummingbird fairy landed on the window sill, looking at him with a worried expression, as he turned his head so he could see it clearly. "Why?"

It didn't answer him, as it didn't understand the question.

Jack rolled onto his back and stared into the ceiling with a hand on his forehead, knowing that questioning something that shouldn't even exist, maybe wasn't the smartest thing he could do, but who else could he talk with about this? The school nurse? "Why can I see you?" Jack asked, not sure whether he actually wanted an answer or not. He felt utterly horrible, as he wasn't sure whether he should laugh or cry at his situation. His day had gotten so much worse than he had thought it could be, which wasn't exactly good.

The fairy opened its mouth as if it was about to say something, but closed its mouth again, seemingly troubled over something. In the end it just kept quiet while studying his lying form on the bed while he stared into the ceiling with a miserable look on his face. He didn't think the fairy as funny anymore, even if it had just been for a brief moment in class. He thought of it as something Karma had sent his way as some sort of punishment for having caused so much mischief on such little time, and was now trying to make him as miserable as possible by toying with him.

He didn't notice, but his eyes had gone blank as he stared into the ceiling, while mentally trying to fix his head. He felt as if a pair of workers ran around his brain, trying to fix it up, but whenever they were close to fixing it one place, what they had made disappeared and left an even bigger mess, giving them even more work. And that did not help on his headache.

"I didn't get your name," the school nurse said, gaining Jack's attention. He hadn't seen her come in, but he was too deep in his messy mind to care for how she had sneaked this close to him without noticing.

Jack exhaled deeply before telling, "Jackson Overland Frost." He didn't notice his voice was shaking. He was afraid, he just didn't realize; both for his mental health and for the fairy. Now ,being afraid of a fairy sounded kind of pathetic, but considering that it shouldn't exist, then it did make perfectly sense that he felt like that.

"You really don't look good," she stated in concern as she wrote down his name in a book. "Something's troubling you?"

He shook his head, and was about to say that she wouldn't understand, but instead simply said, "I just think I need some sleep and I'll be back on my feet."

The nurse nodded though it didn't seem like she completely believed him, before she found a painkiller and a glass of water and put it on a nearby table, "If anything hurts, take the pill."

Jack thanked her, as she went out of the room, leaving him in his misery. He didn't look at the fairy at all, since he didn't know what to do. It was all just so unreal. Why did it have to follow him, of all people, around like it knew him personally? It didn't make any sense.

It _had_ to be a dream…

Yes – Yes of course! He was dreaming; there was nothing else that could explain it. Right now he was asleep safe and soundly in his bed at home. The fairy wasn't real. This whole place wasn't real! It was just him dreaming that he was in school, and had been it for two days by now. Man, couldn't he at least be dreaming something else than school? When he was asleep, school shouldn't disturb his dreamingly haven, that was just unfair for it to do so, it was enough that he had to be stuck there most of his day in the first place.

It all made sense now.

"See, Jack, you're dreaming, now if you close your eyes then you will wake up in your bed and realize that it is still only Tuesday instead of Wednesday," he didn't know why he said it out loud, but somehow he felt that it helped him to get a grip on his nerves again. It was so obvious that it was a dream; it was the only thing that explained that there was a fairy present. Impressive that such a little act like lifting an eraser into the air and scare a guy had been enough for Jack to feel so terrible.

He closed his eyes, convinced that if he fell asleep here, then he would wake up in his bed at home, and be proven that it was all just a really realistic dream. Amazing how he hadn't thought of that before. Just the thought was enough for him to feel delighted as a heavy weight disappeared from his shoulders.

As he was about to drift off, the fairy began chirping annoyed at him falling asleep, but as he ignored it, it chirped louder and louder, trying to wake him up, and that did not help his headache. He frowned and tried to fall asleep despite the loud and constant chirping. But it continued, making him madder as it did, despite him knowing it was only a dream fragment.

"Shut the hell up, Baby Tooth!" He exclaimed when he finally had had enough of its constant chirping, not knowing why he had called it Baby Tooth in the first place, but it was a dream so what he said and why he said it, was of no importance, yet he couldn't help but mumble; "Great going Jack, now you've given it a name too…"

The chirping died instantly, as if he had said a magical word. He didn't even care to open his eyes and look at the fairy, knowing the expression it would have would be shocked; he was just thankful that he didn't have to listen to its constant chirping anymore, so if he only could fall asleep now, then he would wake up at home, having no fairy around and still be by good mental health.

Yes; Jack couldn't wait to be proven it was all just a realistic dream.

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**There you have it!**

**I will now take my leave and start writing, so I'll see you around when I'm back with the next chapter!**


	5. Not According to Plan

**Let's just say that Jack's prank doesn't go exactly according to plan in this one~**

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The Pole was busy as always with yetis creating toys and elves making mischief wherever they went, however, the high spirit that usually filled the place was gone after it had been official that Jack had disappeared. Every yeti and elf as worried for the mischievous winter spirit, though they tried not to show, knowing they couldn't afford to get behind schedule, whether it was with making toys or misfortune.

It was needless to say that those who were worried the most were the Guardians.

At the moment they were gathered in the globe room, being more restless than ever. How could Jack just disappear like that without a trace? They had searched Burgess inside out, but even with Bunny's help they couldn't find him, since the whole town already held his scent, so after that, they had spread out to the rest of the world to find him, and yet they had no luck. No snow had fallen around the world the last weeks and some spirits had even come to the guardians to complain about it, and that wasn't a good sign; it meant Jack had been away for longer than they at first had anticipated.

The wind was rebelling over its lost companion, and didn't want to quiet down no matter how much the guardians were trying to assure it that it would be alright, and that he would come back before it knew it. It just continued to slam itself against the Pole, with a sound like a hollow and voiceless cry. It hurt the guardians to know how horrible it must feel to have lost its friend and not knowing where he went, considering the two of them had been together for three-hundred years. Compared to the short two years the guardians had been with him, and how they felt then it was nothing up against to how the wind felt.

North looked at the window the wind was slamming itself against in its misery. They hadn't realized why the wind had been acting strange the last few weeks, before they had realized it was because of Jack's disappearance, which now made them feel guilty – it had tried to tell them that something was wrong, and yet they hadn't listened. They had just taken it as a prank from Jack's side. Oh how wrong they had been. They had panicked when they hadn't been able to find Jack anywhere, and knowing his status amongst spirits, and his relations (which they hoped he would never find out) then there were no doubt that whatever had happened to him was serious.

With a deep sigh North sank into his armchair, looking blankly back at the naughty list in his hands. His eyes were staring at Jack's name on top of the list, and since it still stood on the list with clear letters, then it meant he was alive somewhere. North couldn't help but feel sad as he stared at the name, remembering what he had said to Jack back when he had been chosen as a guardian, that he was removing Jack from the naughty list, on which Jack held the record; he hadn't forgotten to remove him from it, but apparently Jack hadn't been pleased with losing his position on the naughty list, because just as North had removed his name from it, it appeared on top of the list the following day, as Jack had went out to be as naughty as possible. What Jack had done to get his name back on top of the list that fast was a mystery, but North had learned that Jack didn't want to lose his position as the naughtiest child in the world now for the 302th year in a row. It was amazing that Jack didn't even consider being on the nice list at all, considering that North thought every child wanted to be on that one, but apparently Jack was an exception.

The Guardian of Wonder shook his head and forced his eyes away from the name to look at the others; Bunny was sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace with his paws folded and his eyes staring thoughtfully into the fire, his ears laying back down his head. He had been running around almost constantly since Jack had disappeared, but had come to the pole when he had had to give up his search and be forced to get some rest.

Sandy sat on the floor beside him on a dream sand pillow, hovering midair, with a glass of eggnog in his hands, though he did not drink it. His expression showed nothing but concern, and above his head hung a delicate snowflake, clearly showing his thoughts.

Tooth was sitting in the window sill to one of the big windows which the wind was slamming itself against and howling out its cries. She had her head resting in her one hand and another tapping its fingers restless on the sill. Her eyes were searching the skies for the slightest sign of either Jack or her faithful Baby Tooth, but her hopes had started to slip as none of them had showed for long.

"No sign of them?" North asked her. The air tensed as the other two guardians too looked expectantly at Tooth for an answer, but she shook her head, making them all make a collective sigh.

They didn't exchange any more words for the next couple of hours. They didn't want to break the silence since they didn't know what to say, because what could they say? That Jack would turn up sooner or later with a grin and laugh at them for being such worrywarts or that they shouldn't worry that much since he was used to be on his own and had been it for centuries before they took him in? There was nothing they could say that hadn't been said already. But that didn't ease their worry, both for Jack, and for what MiM would say when he would realize Jack had gone missing, unless he already knew. He probably did, but he never spoke to anyone, unless it was of absolute importance. So either he knew, but didn't tell them, or he didn't. They feared both options, but mostly his reaction if he didn't and then found out. Just who was going to tell him if they needed to? They were supposed to look after Jack, now that he was a guardian, and before, but apparently even after that they had taken him in, they did a job just as bad as before. MiM have mercy on them if he got angry at them for losing his winter spirit.

Both Bunny and Sandy had started to doze off as a sudden surprised yell from Tooth sounded, which waked both of them up, while North looked surprised at the suddenly happy fairy.

"Baby Tooth!" The overly excited fairy shut into the air just as Baby Tooth morphed in through the window, and exhausted landed in her Mama's hands, panting heavily after having fought her way through the ice cold and rebellious wind outside the Workshop. "What are you doing here?" Tooth asked her exhausted minion. "You shouldn't come back before you found Jack, so why isn't he with you?"

Baby Tooth caught her breath and began to hectically speak in her chirping language, making Tooth's eyes widen the longer her minion spoke, while the other guardians looked at her with increasing worry, wondering what could force Tooth to seem so shocked. Had something serious happened to Jack? Was he in trouble and possibly injured? Well, he had gone missing, but if any of those things happened to him, Manny would probably kill them.

When Baby Tooth was finally done talking, Tooth was speechless and stared at her minion for a long while, before her eyes flew to her friends, who all stood expectantly and waited for an answer to what was going on.

Guys," Tooth finally said after a long while. "I think we have a problem."

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Jack stood in the nurse's office with his backpack over his shoulder and a lost expression on his face: when he had fallen asleep, he had been so certain that it was all just a dream, but when he woke, he wasn't in his bed at home as anticipated, but in the exact same place he had fallen sleep in, plus he had almost slept through the entire school day.. The only thing that had changed since he had fallen asleep, was that the fairy was now gone; not that he complained about it, it was actually nice not having to be concentrating on it, but he would still have wished it hadn't needed to show itself to him, and made it clear for him that he had lost his mind.

He sighed as he looked at the clock on the wall before heading out. He had something he needed to do before he ran out of time, and that thing was to make a stink-bomb go off in the mascot uniform. He had been lucky with waking up when he did, else he would have slept past his chance. Despite that he was still worried for his mental health, thanks to the fairy, then he had to do the prank, because else he'd might not get the opportunity again. It was probably for the best too, to pretend nothing had happened and that the whole fairy thing had just been him hallucinating.

As he walked to his locker, he began to think of the prank he was going to make, knowing that if he lost his focus while he was at it, then the possibility for him to be caught red handed was higher than else, and he couldn't let that happen, since it would ruin his personal record. He was actually surprised at himself that he had managed to wake up just before the gym would, according to the schedule he had gotten his hands on, be completely emptied for students and teachers, which left the mascot uniform unprotected and unsupervised.

With a grin on his face, Jack snug his stink-bombs into his pocket as he stood at his locker, making sure no student saw him do so, before he went to the exit. Not that he had had to, considering most of them were still in class. He couldn't wait to see people's reactions when they figured what had happened to it, or hear their theories about how come the uniform would stink like rotten eggs.

Once he was outside the school, he walked across the school grounds and headed behind the gym-building, while acting as casual as possible, to not gain the attention from any of the few students who had a free period, and were outside in the cold late October air. Jack couldn't help but notice that the school grounds had started to be decorated in Halloween decorations by some of the janitors, which he still thought was a bit early. The moment he reached the backdoor, he found a hairpin from his pocket and began to pick the lock, well-knowing what he had to do to get the door open. He didn't use the main door for that simple reason that there would always be a group of teachers or students enjoying a smoke there, so if he wanted to get into the gym unseen, then this was the way through.

A click sounded, telling him that his lock picking skills had been a success. He looked cautiously around, to make sure there were nobody around to see him, before he headed in and closed the door shut behind him, without causing any sort of noise.

He found himself in the equipment storage, where countless of sports objects were being kept, such as matrasses, benches, rackets, balls and whatever could be used.

Jack went to the door in the other end of the room and pressed his ear against the door, listening to the sounds of students running around in the gym on the other side, meaning he couldn't possible get out now without being seen just yet. He discretely opened the door and looked through the small opening, seeing that the students was using some equipment to play tennis, meaning they would have to get into the equipment room sooner or later with them when they were done.

He closed the door and walked back to the door from which he came, and sat down behind a floor exercise mat so he was out of view, and looked at his phone, seeing there were around ten minutes until class ended, and then he would have to wait at least fifteen minutes until he could be sure there would be no one around, but if there was one thing he didn't like to do, then it had to be patient and wait; it was just so boring, but he had to try to make it pass one way or another. It shouldn't be so hard, considering that he was used to be alone with nothing to do, and if he knew himself correctly, then it would probably end up with him playing around with some of the equipment in some sort of lonely game, or simply make a one-man-show just for him-self, which was what happened the most of the times. In a rare case or two, Jack would find him-self lying on his back with his hands behind his head in a casual manner, either trying to remember more about his family or simply fantasize about living a completely different life, whether with having friends, so he didn't have to be all alone, or being some sort of alternate version of himself.

The minutes went by at slow pace, and Jack soon heard the doors to the storage room open, as some students came in with the used equipment, laughing about something they found funny. They didn't notice Jack, since they couldn't see him from his hiding spot in the opposite end of the room, so they smacked the door behind them, leaving him in the dark storage room, waiting for the gym to be completely emptied for people.

In all honesty then he felt just as bored as he had felt in history class, but now he didn't have a fairy to keep him with company or play with; not that he wanted to complain about it not being around, actually he felt really relieved about it, he just felt a bit lonely as he sat there by himself, waiting for his opportunity to strike.

Loneliness wasn't exactly a feeling he was very fond of, but he couldn't help it; he lived on his own, with no contact with his family in any matter, no friends and a feeling like he didn't fit in at all. All through his life, the only way he had made some people notice him was through pranking; if he didn't, it almost felt like he didn't exist and was invisible to the world. Sure enough some girls looked at him when he walked past them, but they would never talk to him, since they all already knew that he was a weirdo, who didn't fit into their 'perfect' world. Eventually one day he knew he should try to make some friends one way or another, and that he couldn't continue to hide behind his pranking forever, but what could he do? When he tried to talk to other students, then he had no idea what they were talking about. He barely knew any movies, games or music, so he had barely anything to talk to them about, and other students always looked at him as if he was some sort of freak, when he tried to join in on a conversation. The only time they didn't think of him as an outcast was when he pranked and acted silly, not that he had something against doing that all the time, it was part of who he was as a person, but it still hurt him that they would only laugh at him for a minute before they would give him the cold shoulder again, but to try to make them warm up to him, he did what he did.

All he wanted was to have a friend, but he had sort of given up on that thought a long time ago.

In all honesty he was scared for not being ever accepted by anyone: to forever be alone was one of his greatest fears, and the fear of never knowing why he felt like he didn't fit in with anybody else and not knowing why, was always harassing in the back of his mind.

It sounded as such a trivial thing to fear, but not to him.

The only people he actually felt comfortable around, and felt that he could actually talk with, was small kids, whom he would try to play games with as much as possible, but thanks to the amount of homework and the long hours at work, then he had barely time to go to the playground and play with them, and that saddened him a lot.

He shook the depressing thoughts off of him, and looked at the clock on his phone, before he rose up and walked back to the door that lead out to the gym. He checked his pockets to make sure the stink-bombs were there, and was relieved when he felt the package; at least that part of the plan couldn't fail. He took a deep breath and went through the plan in his head; get out of the storage room, to the double doors of the gym, down the hallway to the office, where he would find the key to the uniform room in the desk, make an stink bomb explode in the mascot uniform, or in the uniform room in general, put the key back, and get out the same way as he came in. It was simple, but timing was the secret behind success, and pranking was like a science to Jack.

After having pressed his ear against the door, and peeked out to make sure there was no one inside the gym, he snug out and ran to the opposite site of the gym where the double doors were located. He stopped up and once again peeked through the doors, scouting the hallway for any sign of students or teachers, and luckily enough he found none. Jack walked into the hallway and into the direction of the office, with his adrenalin kicking in in the process. As he walked, he listened for even the slightest sound of someone being nearby, if there were, he would have to abroad the mission.

He reached the door leading into the office where the gym teachers mostly stayed, and after having checked around the corner for any sign of people, he pressed his ear against the door, listening to whether or not there were noises behind the door, but he couldn't hear anything.

Jack looked down the hallway one last time, before he began to pick the lock with the hairpin. He almost felt like a criminal for doing it, but if he wanted to be successful with the pranking then he had to get the key, since he couldn't use a hairpin to pick the lock to the uniform room; he had tried, and the result had been a lot of broken hairpins and an embarrassing trip to a girls' accessory shop to buy some more.

The unlocking sound met Jack, who put the hairpin back into his pocket with a smile on his lips; everything was going really smooth so far, it was perfect. With a swift move he went into the empty office, locked the door behind him and went to the desk, which stood beside the big display case of medals and trophies the school's different sports teams had won throughout the years. He squatted down behind the desk, making sure he was out of sight in case someone entered, and began to search the drawers, though he had to use his trusted hairpin again. Why in the world would the teachers even lock those in the first place? Wasn't it enough protection that the door was locked?

He snorted as all he found in the first drawer was nothing but papers and notes on different students, making him have to search the next drawer which he too had to pick lock.

A victorious grin showed on his face the moment he found the key which lay hidden under a notebook. Now all he had to do was to get to the uniform room without getting seen, put the key back and then get away without being seen.

He closed the drawer and rose up, only to freeze right on the spot, his heart skipping a beat. He hadn't heard the door opening or the lock unlocking at all.

A stranger stood before him with green eyes staring at him, all dressed in a fury outfit, like a humanoid bunny mixed with a kangaroo. He stood with his arms crossed, and looked at Jack with a slightly annoyed expression on his face.

Jack swallowed as he realized he had been caught red handed in breaking into the place, but he had to wonder just why the man was dressed up as he was. "Can I help you?" Jack asked innocently, unsure of how to tackle the situation he was in. He really hadn't prepared for the case of him being caught – it had just seemed like such an unrealistic thought.

The strange bunny-looking man's expression became serious, before he, with an Australian accent, said, "Ya got some serious explanation to do, mate." Jack couldn't even get to react, before the bunny-man tapped his foot on the ground, and a hole opened up under Jack's feet, making him fall into it with a surprised yelp.

As he slid through the tunnel which more or less reminded him of a roller-coaster ride, he simply couldn't help but scream; hadn't it been because he had been taken by such a surprise, by both the bunny-man and the sudden tunnel appearing, then he would probably have found the trip hilarious, but it wasn't the case.

The trip through the tunnels ended almost as quickly as it had begun. One moment he slid through a tunnel, and in the next he was spit out of it, into the air and head-first onto hard wooden floor, making everything blacken before his eyes for a moment. Wherever he was now smelled like hot chocolate, cinnamon and spruce and the temperature was way too hot for his likening.

"Jack!" An unknown voice filled with a heavy Russian accent called his name, making Jack look up to find the source of the voice; a big man with white beard and tattoos on each arm with the words 'naughty' and 'nice', was standing in front of him with a wide smile, yet a worried look on his face. Behind him, in the air, was a hummingbird-looking fairy with wings creating a buzzing-sound, which reminded him of the fairy that had followed him earlier that same day, just a lot bigger, and by her side was a little round golden man. The bunny-man had come through the tunnel right after Jack, and now stood with a serious mime, watching Jack as if he would ran off any given moment.

Jack soon realized it was the people he had seen in the park a week earlier, but...

Just what in the world was going on?


	6. In Body and Mind

**Guess what day it is today. Yes, it's the 17th of July. But today is a ****_special_**** day, well at least for my birth-giver that is (better known as 'Mother'), for me though, it's just a day I want to get over with as quick as possible. Can't guess it? Well, let me tell you, today is my 19th birthday, hurray for me, since my mom decided to get her first born 19 years ago... **

**As you might have already guessed, then I'm not really excited about my birthday, and I don't want to make a big deal out of it, but my mother do, which is just my luck. So yeah, I'm kind of celebrating this 'special' day in my own way, by posting stuff to you guys, before mom wakes up and starts to try to make this day a party. I hate it, and whenever I tell her that all I want to do is sit in front of the laptop with some nachos and salsa, while watching a good movie or whatever, then she always begins a long speech about why I shouldn't do such a thing, and instead do the one thing I hate; being social and host a party... **(¬д¬。)

**So yeah, if you don't have birthday today like I do, then have a good Wednesday, and I hope you will enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Bunnymund stood with his arms crossed and watched as Jack got to his feet. He couldn't believe just how much trouble they had had to go through to find him, before they got him to the Pole. Sure enough, he hadn't had much of a chance to hide or whatever, when Bunny first had found him, but it had still been a hell to do so, without Baby Tooth's help (she had now been sent back to the Tooth Palace to keep order on her sisters and help out Tooth as long as she was here on the Pole). It was incredible that such a little thing, as her coming to them, had made the job so much easier. Before that, they had searched everywhere where it had been cold enough for Jack's likening, and had done it non-stop - first Burgess, then the North Pole and Antarctica, and then they had headed to other places where winter should have come, but without any luck, and it was now obvious why.

When Baby Tooth had told Tooth that she had found Jack, they had thought that it would be 'their' Jack, but according to what Tooth had translated from her minion, then he had become a mortal. At first they had thought of it as a joke, but it had showed it wasn't when Bunny had traveled to the High School in Burgess to find him, where Baby Tooth had told them he would be, though he had been really skeptic about it. If Jack really was a mortal, then a school would be one of the last places he would be – it robbed the freedom from humans, and was a way too serious place for someone as carefree and easygoing as he. It didn't make any sense, not to mention why Jack would be a mortal in the first place.

Once Bunny had gotten to the school, he caught Jack's scent there, which indeed had been stronger than any place else in the entire town, and despite his hatred for non-believers going through him, even if they were youngsters, then he had run through the school, while tracking down his scent. When he had come to the nurses' office, the scent had been so strong that it had been as if he had just left, but he had found it empty however, and followed the scent further to a sweat reeking building, which a lot of sweaty humans was headed out of. All the humans had been talking about enjoying taking a bath, which Bunny could tell that they all were in desperate need for.

However, Bunny had still been able to pick up Jack's scent despite the heavy stink of sweat, and had soon found a guy who looked exactly like Jack, despite his hair and eyes. He had been lock picking a door, while cautiously looking around, for some reason not noticing Bunny's presence, whether it was because he had been standing right behind him, and therefore hadn't seen him, he didn't know, but he didn't care; he just needed to get Jack back to the Pole for answers about why he had stopped doing his job, and chosen to disappear.

Once Jack had walked through the door and locked it behind him, Bunny had taken one of his tunnels to the other side of it, and watched as Jack had begun to lock pick a drawer.

The Guardian of Hope had gotten somewhat mad at seeing Jack doing something the humans would consider criminal, but he had started to know the young spirit enough into knowing that he would do whatever he needed to do, to get some fun out of it, and he wasn't just thinking about the blizzard of '68 in this case, but in all general. Just the mere thought of the 'accident' as Jack had called it, made Bunny grit his teeth. There was no way he could ever forgive Jack for what he had done that Easter, even if they now were friends or friendly rivals at least.

With that thought of the blizzard of '68 in his head, he had been enjoying the shocked look on Jack's face when he realized he hadn't been alone in the office, and his screaming when he had fallen through the tunnel which Bunnymund had opened right under his feet. Though it indeed did seem like he was in a mortal body, it didn't mean that he was a mortal in mind, and therefore he would know why Bunny had taken him by such a surprise.

But now, seeing how confused Jack was, of being in front of his fellow guardians, now that he was at the Pole, Bunny wasn't so sure about it anymore. In fact, Jack seemed scared for them, and that only made him wonder even more about what state Jack really were in.

"Jack!" North greeted their youngest member, with a huge smile on his lips, despite the worried look in his eyes, not noticing the scared expression in the teen's face. "Where've you been? We've looked everywhere for you. Bunny, good job on bringing him here," he added to Bunnymund, who watched Jack with a thoughtful expression, and only snorted in response.

Jack looked cautiously at the big Russian man, not daring to take his eyes off of him. He felt utterly speechless for a moment, before he finally managed to utter a weak, "do I know you?"

The Russian looked surprised at him, before he began to laugh as if Jack had just told a joke.

The sudden laugh made Jack jump and feel even more nervous at the moment. Just who was this guy and why in the world had they 'kidnapped' him? Wait… he had been _kidnapped_? The realization shot through Jack in a matter of seconds. What in the world was he supposed to do in such a situation?

The three other guardians glanced at each other, before Tooth flew up in front of Jack and looked him in the eye with a worried expression, as she saw his trembling. His question had made it clear to her that something was wrong, and normally Jack would never show that he was scared, but it was obvious that he was at the moment, which didn't ease the suspicion of something being wrong.

"You don't remember us?" She asked and tilted her head, and had to hold back a gasp when he shook his head while unable to look away from her big purple eyes. But then he heard the buzzing sound coming from her, and that made his eyes shoot to the ground where she were supposed to be standing, but then they shot back up to her face, as he had seen that she wasn't touching the ground – she was in the air, kept up by the wings on her back, meaning she was an actual fairy, just like the smaller fairy, which had followed him around all day.

The realization was too much for him, and he couldn't help but feel afraid for the fairy creature in front of him; was his normal life really over for good? First a small hummingbird-fairy which was following him around, then a giant bunny-man kidnapping him, and now being caught up with these monsters!

"You're flying," he said in a low disbelieving voice, as a frown appeared on his face. He was trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but somehow it felt like his brain had stopped itself from functioning correctly, and didn't want to accept the abnormality in front of him.

"Yes, of course I am Jack," Tooth said slowly, trying to figure out what was going through his mind. "Why wouldn't I be?"

A shimmer of gold caught his eye, and his eyes went to Sandy who hung in the air behind her, carefully smiling to him, and with a golden picture of four miniature figures of the kidnappers and a question mark above his head. Jack didn't understand what it meant, but he didn't care; this was all so surreal to him like some sort of dream, and therefore he couldn't help but pinch himself. His eyes widened as he felt the pain. He felt pain, meaning it wasn't a dream.

No. No way could this be reality! He was still hallucinating. That had to be the only explanation to this abnormality; either that or he was still asleep in the nurses' office. But deep down he knew he wasn't; this was reality, an utter horrifying reality.

"Y – you're flying …" Jack repeated in a shaking voice, and began to slowly back away from her, his eyes not leaving her for one moment. His breath had quickened, his eyes were wider than ever, and his pupils were dilated into what seemed like panic. He couldn't believe it. It was… it was just…

It had to be a dream. It had to.

Bunny noticed the twitching Jack made with his hands, clearly showing that something was happening in that mind of his, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good.

The guardians all watched with worried eyes as Jack continued to back away, his eyes not leaving the concerned fairy; he just wanted to get away, to get back to his home, lock the door and hide in his closet like some scared little child, because that was exactly what he felt like.

Some huge and hairy wall blocked his way, but that was not what scared him. What scared him was that he felt it _breathe_. He was almost certain that nothing could really surprise him no more, but the feeling of the breathing wall, still made him tense up, and his breath quicken. Slowly, as if he would die by making a quick move, he turned around, and was met with a sight he would never forget; right in front of him, towering far above his head, stood a gigantic hairy monster, with eyes big and arms which were probably strong enough to lift a car above its head, or crush a man's skull by poking it. The sight made panic and terror spread through his body at the speed of light, as everything in his body screamed for him to get away.

The following moment felt like it lasted a lifetime, as the two of them stared at each other, as Jack got paler and paler for every passing second.

Then it happened; the yeti said confused something in its language to North, and that small action made Jack make a terrified scream, which caught them all off guard. Bunny had to hold his paws over his sensitive ears, due to the loud noise, while the rest jumped in surprise. The sound of his scream made the Wind slam itself harder and harder against the workshop, upset to hear its rider so scared, but it couldn't get in, as the windows had been strengthened ever since it ran amok, but it still managed to make the windows groan under the pressure.

It was in that second that Jack set off, running away from the yeti and the guardians. He didn't know where he would run to, he just knew on instinct that he had to get away. A pair of double doors caught his attention, which he quickly ran against. Little did he care what was behind them or where they would lead him to, all he wanted was to get away from the huge monster he had bumped into.

The Guardians stared shocked at Jack for a short moment, at first not understanding why he reacted as he did, but they quickly understood, and the realization was not something they found comforting. They needed to get him under control and fast, before he would end up hurting himself or other residences of the Pole. He was to danger for himself at the moment, and they had to get him under control, before he got hurt.

"He's heading to Workshop! Hurry, we have to stop him," North exclaimed as he realized where Jack was running off to, and seeing the way he had reacted to a single yeti, then it would be nothing compared to how he would react to a whole workshop filled with them. He would probably get a heart attack, if he saw too many of them at once, and there was no way they could let that happen.

Jack was about to reach for the door handle, but was cut off as Tooth flew in front of him and blocked the way, not wanting him to enter, knowing it would only upset him even more. His heart skipped a beat as she did so, and he quickly changed direction towards a corridor nearby, stumbling over his feet in the progress.

"Do something!" Tooth exclaimed as Jack panicky ran past the globe, desperately trying to get away.

The runaway teen didn't need to look back, to know that the golden man was flying after him, as he ran into the corridors he had now been heading for. He didn't care for what those people wanted or why they had brought him to wherever they were in the first place, he just wanted to get away from them no matter what it would take.

He rounded a corner, and for a short moment hoped he could get away from them by doing so, but just as he did, Bunny ran right in front of him, blocking his way and gaining a surprised yelp from their newest member.

Jack couldn't get past him, but as he was turning around golden sand shot into his vision as he lost his footing and he was being pulled back by a gigantic golden arm, while Bunny followed him with a somewhat sad expression on his face, as Jack desperately tried to get free.

"N – No! Let me go!" Jack yelled with terror written all across his face, as he was being dragged back to them by the sand. "You're monsters! Let go of me!"

"Sandy, knock him out," Bunny said to his mute friend, as Jack hung in the air in front of Sandy, utterly terrified for what was going on.

The Guardian of Dreams nodded as he heard Bunny's words, and blew a handful of sand in Jack's face, causing him to fall asleep, despite his try to fight against it.

He was then carefully placed on the couch near the fire place, so he could at least lay a bit comfortable, when they were back in the globe room.

Despite that Jack had stopped screaming, and now laid on the couch in a sweet slumber, then the Wind didn't quiet down outside the Workshop, but it was ignored, as the guardians and the shocked yeti gathered around the sleeping teen, all with concern written across their faces. They hadn't expected Jack to react the way he did, but it had made it clear to them that Jack was both a mortal in body and mind at the moment, and that realization made the guardians nervous; what had caused their beloved winter spirit to turn into a mortal, who didn't remember them at all, and why? They had just expected him to have a mortal body, but still have his memory.

"Maybe we should have handled it differently," Tooth said after a while, with guilt filling her up inside. Seeing Jack look at her like she was some kind of monster had left its marks, and she felt horrible about it – it reminded her of how the people in her village had looked at her, when she first had gotten her wings, and it wasn't something she liked to remember, in fact, she had tried to forget everything about it for two thousand years, if not more, but this act had made it all come back to her.

Her three friends nodded in agreement to her words. Maybe taking Jack back to them the way they had hadn't been the best idea they had gotten, but they had had to get him to them one way or another since Baby Tooth had told them that he was in a mortal body. She should probably have stayed with him longer so she could have told them that he didn't remember them at all, unless she had simply forgotten all about it.

"I don't think it would be good oil if he saw somethin' _abnormal _once he wakes up," Bunny said and eyed the yeti, beside him. The Pooka would never admit it, but he felt bad about the way Jack had reacted when he had seen them.

Both Tooth and Sandy sighed, knowing that if they hadn't been flying, and instead been standing on the ground, then Jack probably wouldn't have reacted the way he had, but it was too late to change that now since the damage was done.

"What do we do now then?" Tooth asked in a weak voice as she watched the dream sand above Jack's head, picturing him running around, and play with some children. It was very typical for Jack, so there was no mistaken that it really was him, and not some doppelgänger.

North crossed his arms and thought of their possibilities; they could take Jack back to Burgess under Jamie's watch, until they figured what was going on with him, but since he still was a guardian, then he would be at risk for attacks from other spirits who still hadn't excepted him as one, however this experience probably had shaken him too much for him to simply go back to the life he had been living, while he had disappeared. No. They couldn't possibly let him back, of fear for him being attacked if other spirits got the knowledge of him being in his current state, it was simply too risky. However, letting him stay at the Pole would make sure they knew where he was, and that he would be safe, but it would probably terrify the young boy, not to mention there were lots of magic everywhere, and it didn't seem like Jack liked anything abnormal as long as he was like this. Therefore North decided that they should put Jack into a guest room, and then make sure that none supernatural creatures walked into him before he was ready for it, more or less meaning that it was only North who could do so, since he was the only one who looked like an ordinary human, not that he didn't want his friends to get close to Jack at the moment; it was just what was for the best for him to not see any fairies, pookas or men made out of sand, until he was ready to accept it.

"We take him to room where he will not be disturbed," North said after a while, and gestured for them to follow. Bunny took Jack's sleeping form into his arms bridal style, and followed North through the Russian Palace, while Tooth and Sandy flew after them, both with guilty expressions.

The Guardian of Wonder lead his friends up a staircase, down a hall and to a door, which he opened so they could come through, and when they entered, they were met by a beautifully decorated room. The walls were icy blue and the floor white as snow, while fake icicles hung from the ceiling and at the window. All the furniture looked like it was made by ice, right from the desk and the bookcase to the big bed, which was filled with soft blankets and pillows. Snowflake figurines were to find basically everywhere, and were made of some weird material they couldn't point out what was. The room didn't seem completely finished yet, as there were still buckets of paint and tools in a corner, but it didn't mean it wasn't gorgeous.

"North, what is this room?" Tooth asked as she looked around the room, causing the Russian to smile a sheepish yet proud smile.

"It is project of mine, when I do not have to make toys, it is sort of guest room for Jack when he comes by, so naturally I thought it would be perfect for him to sleep in. He does not have home, so I thought at least he should have a bed to sleep in." North began to explain to Tooth, how and why he had made the room for Jack, apparently both forgetting they had a problem at hand for the moment.

Bunny placed Jack on the bed and pulled the duvet over him. He had started to feel like an older brother for the mischievous winter spirit, and though he would never admit it, then he did care for him.

The Easter Bunny watched as Jack's dream unfolded above his sleeping head, while Sandy stood at the opposite side of the bed, watching it as well. It seemed like such a peaceful dream, however the Jack who ran around in the dream was a mortal, and the sight wasn't something they wanted to make Jack continue to believe he was.

"Ey' Sandy?"

A question mark formed above Sandy's head, as he looked at Bunny with a curious look on his face, clearly showing that he was listening to what he had to say.

"Can ya mess with ta dream, and make him dream 'bout somethin' else?"

Sandy looked confused for a short moment, but then nodded with a smile as he understood why Bunny had asked such a question, before he began to concentrate on making a dream specially tailored for Jack. Soon the dream changed and showed Jack flying around with his staff in his hands and creating snow while laughing of his creation. The dream made a smile spread across Jack's sleeping face, meaning that he indeed enjoyed it, so it hadn't been a completely wrong decision to change it.

"You think that will work?" Tooth asked, when North finally had finished telling her about the room, so now she hung in the air above the bed with her arms hugging her-self in her worry for her dear snowflake, as she was watching the dream as well as her two friends. She knew that Baby Tooth had told her that Jack had recognized her, but after what she had seen, then she thought it had happened by coinsidence, though she couldn't help but wonder just how much he remembered about his true self...

Bunny shrugged at her question. He wasn't sure if it would help the situation or not, but if making sure he dreamed about who he really was could make him remember even the smallest of memory, then it would be worth a shot. "Who knows, it may or may not do so, but what else can we do at the moment?"

The four guardians watched their youngest member as he was sleeping, before North demanded that they all should leave the room, since there wasn't more they could do at the moment. "You have to understand, after his reaction to supernatural, then you guys being there, when he wakes, is bad decision." Bunny rolled his eyes, as North repeated what he had said some time ago, but he didn't complain; he knew it was true, and that Jack needed his time to get used to them being around, and accept them, at least until he became his old self one way or another.

The question was just how they should be able to make that happen.

* * *

**So there you have it, it's not much but it's something, though in all honesty, I'm not so sure about this chapter, especially not the ending (why do I always hate those?), but none the less I hope you enjoyed it ~**

＿〆(。。)

*** I haven't forgotten about the stinkbombs - we're going to have some fun with those, I'll just have to figure what I want Jack to do with them first!**

*** the doppelgänger error has now been corrected! - just typical that the only word I thought I had controll over in english was wrong :-p**

...

**_DTScythe_**** : **well, that depends on what you mean with similar stories, but if you want a story where all the Guardians are mortals and lives normal High School lives, then I would recommand that you read "_The Coldest and the Boldest_" by _TectonicPlatez,_ which is one of my absolute favorite fanfictions so far, else there is "_Kill the Lights_" by _vividRegulator,_ which is really good too. You can find both fanfictions on this site.

**_caitycaterpillar_**** : **Thanks for telling me! I'll see to it once I get the time to do so, but I'm glad you enjoy the story!

**_Guest000004682_**** : **That was seriously one of the longest reviews I've ever gotten, and I'm really happy that you like the story that much! It is awesome to know that others enjoys it, and it makes me want to continue writing, and try my best into making the chapters better for you guys, one way or another

**_Taranodongirl1_**** : **I know there probably should have been some more moments with that and such, and after I read your review, then I had to admit that it might was a bit too quick for it to happen, but I just thought it was a good place to make them find him for some reason. I've tried to add some of their hunt for Jack in this one, but in all honesty, then I'm not that sure about the outcome... But I guess I will have to make you guys decide whether it was a bad desicion or not to do so.


	7. Stuck

**I'm telling you, this chapter was a pain in the neck to write. I had such difficulties with doing so, and trying to keep Jack from both freaking put too much, and from being too nice and well-behaved, not to mention what was going through his head. Seriously, I'm not even sure about how well this chapter turned out.**

***sigh* … At least enjoy the chapter this, if it's enjoyable I guess, because I don't even care anymore; I'm done. See you at the next one. ***_**packs up stuff and leaves**_*****

* * *

"Did he just say –"

"Jack Frost?"

A gasp escaped his lips as the child said his name again. "He said it again… He said… you said –"

The child looked at him with big eyes, as he turned in his bed, facing against him as snow gently fell around his room. "Jack Frost!"

"That's right, but – but that's me, Jack Frost, that's my name - !" He looked at the child with now a cautious expression despite the unsettling feeling he felt, as he couldn't believe what he had just heard. "You said my name!" The young boy did not answer. All he did was to look at the white-haired teen with open mouth and eyes wide.

The smile on Jack's face disappeared, as realization took over. He knew he shouldn't dare to hope, but he couldn't help it. Was it possible that this was finally it? "W – Wait can you _hear_ me? C – can you… Can you _see_ me?" The boy nodded to both his questions, and Jack had to suppress tears which threatened to shed of never-ending pure happiness as his most inner dream just became reality. "He sees me! He – he sees me!"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Jack rolled to his stomach and pulled the duvet over his head, as he began to wake up. He didn't want to wake now, when he had such a good dream, but he couldn't help it, as the light from the sun had settled upon his face and therefore wakened him. Why did the sun have to be up now anyway? Couldn't it see he was trying to sleep and enjoy a good dream for once? He almost always had nightmares or dreamless nights, so a good dream was definitely more than welcome when he slept, but apparently the sun didn't think so, which was just typical.

Tired as he was, he scratched the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, despite his stiff back. Why he always felt so stiff in the morning was a mystery – it was annoying, and it made him feel like an old man instead of the hyperactive teen he was supposed to be.

When he finally opened his eyes, he was expecting to see his messy apartment, but as he looked around he realized that he wasn't there nor anywhere else he recognized. The whole room looked like it had been made of ice and snow, and he was sure he had never seen it before in his entire life, but he had to admit it was nice looking, mainly because he liked snow and winter in general, so a winter themed room was just his taste. It took him a second to remember what had happened the day before, and that he probably still was at the place where he had been kidnapped to.

He frowned; for some reason he had apparently come to terms with the thought of being kidnapped overnight, though he wouldn't accept it, and would do whatever it took to get away, but what bothered him just as much as being in this situation was that he didn't even remember that he had fallen asleep, which was weird. He had been running away from the monster (a chill went down his spine as he remembered it) and headed down a hallway, but then he had been caught by some sand, and had apparently fallen asleep right after, and had an amazing dream - he had really liked it, since it had been such a happy one, and he had felt so overjoyed by dreaming it, though he had to wonder why he had pictured himself as _the_ Jack Frost. Sure enough, if he removed some parts of his name, then he would get that name, but in the dream his appearance had been different; he had had white hair, blue eyes, his skin had looked like he hadn't seen the sun for years, and he had had some sort of staff which could create snow with just a simple swing with it. It had sort of reminded him of the shepherds' hook he had seen some creepy guy walk around with, when he had taken a stroll in the forest near Burgess on his first day in town. He had only seen the man for about a second however, but none the less he had still managed to somewhat make an impression on Jack, as he had walked away from him and disappeared into the shadows of the forest, as if he had never been there to begin with.

Jack got out of bed, only to find himself fully dressed. Had they just put him in bed right when he had fallen asleep? It seemed like it. He wouldn't complain about it though, he guessed he would have freaked out if he had found himself in a pajama, which would have meant that the strangers had undressed him while he slept, so he was at least thankful that they hadn't done so. He even still had the stink bombs in his pocket, not that he knew what he could use those for now, but they could come in handy if he needed them.

He shook his head as he thought about the 'supernatural' kidnappers, and began to walk around the room, while studying it, despite that he knew he had to get away sooner or later. He still couldn't believe that he had been kidnapped by a humanoid bunny, a fairy, a huge Russian and a sandman…

For some reason Jack couldn't help but think about the small sandman. It wasn't possible that that small golden man had been _the_ sandman, who came with sweet dreams, since that would just be too crazy. None of those fairytale characters were real and everybody knew that, well not small children of course, but it would explain why he had just fallen asleep without realizing it. He sighed; he really shouldn't start to think about fairytale characters, since it wouldn't help his mental health at the moment nor his acceptance of what was happening around him.

Jack stopped walking around the room, as his eyes fell on the window, which the wind was slamming itself against. "What the –" he walked up to it, and looked at the snowy scenery outside not believing his eyes, as he was sure he had never seen so much snow in his entire life. There couldn't be so much snow in Burgess after just one night could there? No of course there couldn't, he wasn't even near the town any longer, as far as he could tell from the scenery – there were no trees and no other houses than what seemed like a strange Russian palace, placed upon the snowy mountains and glaciers.

Curious as he was, he opened the window, and was met with an ice-cold wind, which wrapped itself around him the second it got in, almost as if it greeted him. He was shocked at the freezing temperature that met him, but he couldn't help but lean outside and have a look around the incredible scenery, as it reminded him of something from a fairytale book or from documentaries about the Pole. It couldn't be the Pole however, since no one lived there, and there were no way he could have gotten there after only having slid through the tunnel for a few seconds. It would just be so surreal, though he honestly wouldn't think anything could surprise him anymore, considering what he had been through the last two days – fairies, tunnels from out of nowhere, strangers kidnapping him, supernatural creatures, monsters …

He quickly closed the window again, as it started to get too cold for him, and instead headed towards the door opposite the window. He couldn't stay any longer, no matter how much he felt like he had to admire the scenery, since he had to get away from this place before the kidnappers figured he were gone. He quickly changed direction though, and headed towards the bed, where he took some pillows and laid them under the duvet, so it looked like he was still asleep, before he went back towards the door – at least now, in case the kidnappers came back, they would still believe he was sleeping. It was such a simple trick, and since it had worked in movies, then why shouldn't it work for him?

Jack took the door handle and slowly opened the door, just enough so he could peek out, seeing a long empty hallway, decorated all Christmassy, despite that there were few days until Halloween. He was surprised that they hadn't locked the door, but maybe he did have some luck with getting away after all? With a deep breath, he opened the door completely, and was about to head out, but as he did, he knocked his face against some invisible force, which blocked his way out into the hallway, causing him to take a few steps back. The sudden impact had stunned him for a while, before he led his hands towards the door opening, trying to push them through, but they stopped up as they couldn't get any further. It was like there had been build an invisible wall which prevented him from escaping the room at all.

A faint hint of panic took roots in him, as he began to hit the invisible force, creating a deep beat in the progress, but no matter how much he hit it, nothing happened; he was trapped in the room. Just why in the world did they have to use magic to make sure he stayed? Couldn't they just have locked the door like normal people?

'_And you've already gotten used to the thought of magic existing, great going Jack; you've already accepted that you've lost your mind.'_

"Shut up," Jack told the voice in his head, and let his arms fall down to his sides in defeat after having been beating the air for about ten minutes. Of course _supernatural kidnappers_ would take precautions so their prisoner wouldn't get away. It had been too good to be true that they would have forgotten to do such a thing. "Now what do I do?"

His eyes fell back at the window, and with a sigh he went to it and opened it once again. He knew he could lean out of it, but he wasn't sure if it would be such a good idea to actually try to escape by crawling out, considering the strong wind, the height, and the freezing temperature outside. He would probably freeze to death if he got outside with no jacket or any protection against the cold, but it was either that or be trapped in a room where the kidnappers would have control over him and that couldn't be good, since they weren't what you could consider to call 'normal'.

The wind greeted him again in its cold embrace as he leaned out, and looked down on the world down below – there was a long way down and no platforms he could balance on so he could get away, simply meaning that he was stuck in the room until they would let him out some time in the future. Hopefully they would let him go soon, since he couldn't afford being away from school, not to mention work – if he didn't get to work, then his paycheck would decrease, meaning that he wouldn't be able to afford neither food nor his apartment for that matter. He already had a hard time paying for food after having paid the rent, so it would be a catastrophe if his paycheck got any smaller. Though he hadted both work and school, then he had no choice but to go there. How wonderful it was to have to grpw up and take responsibility for your own life... Not.

Jack sat down in the window sill, after having taken the duvet from the bed and wrapped him-self into it to keep warm, and crossed his arms. Had he been the Jack Frost from his dream, and had the staff, then he could have flown away while being carried by the wind, but this was reality, and he couldn't just let it carry him away like a snowflake by the wind, as it had done with his dream-self, before the dream had ended with him being in some child's bedroom. The worst part of it, was that he had seen the child from his dream before, when he had been headed for school – the kid was in middle school and if Jack remembered correctly, then his name was Jamie and had a younger sister called Sophie. He had never talked to them however, since he was busy with school, despite his hatred for it, and work, and he didn't even know why he even had taken an interest in that kid, but he had just, in some weird way, felt as if he knew him from somewhere, almost as if he was of great importance. How weird was that?

"So, Wind, it's just you and me huh?"

The wind ruffled his hair as he spoke to it, in his try to have something to do as long as he couldn't go anywhere. He wasn't much for feeling lonely, so therefore, in this case, he chose to speak with the invisible wind. Most people would think he was crazy if they knew he did so, but he couldn't help it; he had always been speaking to himself whenever he felt like he was lonely. Because sometimes he just liked to pretend that there were someone around him to listen, whether it was the wind or the moon didn't matter, it was just nice to believe that he had someone who cared enough for him to listen to what he had to say, considering he had no friends and all. In situations like these, where he had been kidnapped, it was nice to do so, not that he had ever expected such a thing to happen to him of all people, considering that he was of none importance, had no money and had nothing to do with anything criminal, if you looked past what he had made at school, like breaking in and destroy some of the school's property that is, but still.

"You know," Jack continued in his lonely talk to the wind. "Here a week ago or something, I was at the grocery store, and there was this guy in the frozen section, who was tweaked off his balls on some kind of hallucinatory drug, and I was in the next isle meowing softly though the cereal boxes, where he couldn't see me, and he was losing his shit while pulling pizza boxes out of the freezers, yelling that he needed to save the popsicle cat. It was hilarious." He laughed for himself at the memory of what had happened. It was a true story, which just made it even funnier. The only reason that he was trying to get himself to laugh however, was that he was scared at the moment, and how he handled that was, that he tried to have some fun, when he wasn't screaming like some sissy over a huge monster. "I think I might be Satan," Jack continued with a smirk, though it disappeared as he looked towards the door again. He'd wish he could get out, he really did, but he was stuck and couldn't do anything at the moment, so he simply kept talking to the wind, asking it questions and such, until someone came and got him out. Unless he could find some hidden doorway, but what was the chances for that? "If you had a room with absolutely nothing in it, and the walls, the ceiling and the floor were made of mirrors, what would it look like in the mirrors?"

The wind stopped for a brief moment, as if it didn't know how to respond to that question. He couldn't blame it though; he doubted anyone knew the answer, which was why it was such a brilliant one.

Maybe the room would bend light or something?

"Okay, I get it, then let me give you the most horrible scenario I can come up with," Jack continnued as he spoke to his 'invisible friend' about all sorts of random things that popped up in his mind. "You're in a room. It's locked. There are televisions on the walls. On those televisions are videos of all the embarrassing things that have ever happened to you. The volume of every television is _not_ an even number."

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The sun stood high on the sky, when the door to the room finally opened from the outside. Jack had at that moment been through every inch of the whole room in search for a way out, but had had to give up, since the only exists were the door and the window, and both were out of the question – one was too dangerous, and another was blocked. In his hands he held a roughly made weapon, which he had created by destroying one of the chairs and sharpened the leg so it was like a spit, using some of the tools which lay in the corner of the room. He had made it in case one of the kidnappers or monsters would come back, so he at least could defend himself in necessary. He had then went back to his lonesome conversation with the wind and told it one random thing after the other, right from cats in pants to the prank he had planned for his boss, though it now seemed like he never would get the opportunity to do it, considering his situation at the moment.

He sat in the window sill with the company of the icy wind, with arms crossed as he tense looked at the door, hiding the spit under the duvet. He was ready to attack if he had to.

Jack released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, when one of the kidnappers, the big Russian man, stood in the door opening with a tray filled with food in his hands. At least it wasn't one of the monsters, and that made Jack relax at least, though his grip on the weapon wasn't getting any looser. He couldn't let his guard down just because it wasn't a monster in form; he could still be a monster in mind.

The two looked at each other for a moment, before the Russian smiled and went into the room, where he put the tray on the table. "I hope you are hungry, Jack, you did not get breakfast since you were asleep." He turned to Jack with a warm gesture, but was only met with a suspicious glare from the teen.

"How can I know you haven't poisoned it?" He asked and eyed the food tray. Though he felt like he was starving at the moment, then he wouldn't risk the possibility of being killed by eating anything those people had to offer him. If they were kidnappers, then why couldn't they be killers?

The Russian simply waved him off. "Tell me, why would I poison food for fellow guardian? That would be stupid, no?"

Jack raised an eyebrow at his response. What in the world was he talking about? "What's a guardian?" He didn't know why he had asked, but he couldn't help it; when he was curious, he had to find the answer to the question, even if it meant gaining the information from people like that Russian man.

His question seemed to surprise the man for a second, almost as if he had said something that was unheard of, before a worried expression showed upon his face; "You really do not remember?" When he didn't get a response, he sighed and massaged his temples, seemingly deep in thoughts, before he sat down on a chair, looking at Jack with a thoughtful expression while leaning his elbows on his knees while folding his hands. When he finally spoke, it was almost like a hurt father speaking to his son. "Jack, we are not bad people, you must know at least."

A disbelieving snicker escaped Jack's lips at his words, and his grip tightened around the spit. Not bad people? Yeah right. They had kidnapped him, kept him away from his home and daily life, not to mention exposing him for monsters and magic and whatever had happened to him during the last few days. How could they _not_ be bad people after that? Kidnappers were bad people, it was child's logic.

"Listen to me Jack," he continued. "I will explain everything, but you will have to promise to eat something. You are no immortal at moment, so you need to eat too keep good health." He gestured to the tray, but Jack didn't even look at it, despite his stomach had started to growl at the thought of food. No way he wanted to let them poison him, even if it held some of his favorite sorts of food… How could they even know what his favorite food was anyway? He didn't even know them at all, yet alone their names, and he had never seen them before in his entire life, if you didn't count when they had been in the park that was. Had they been stalking him before taking him away? Just how much did these people know about him anyway? What if they did this because of him hurting school proberty? That thought didn't fall into good soil in the youngster's mind.

His stomach growled louder, making his watcher sigh. "Jack, eat, I have not poisoned it I would be bad guardian if I did."

Jack eyed him for a moment, trying to see whether or not he was lying, but he couldn't deny his hunger, and he knew that, so with careful movements he walked to the tray on the table, still with the duvet around him while hiding the weapon, and took the big bowl of vanilla ice-cream from the tray, despite the cold temperature in the room. He didn't like warm food, he never had, so naturally he didn't want to take any of them, like the soup. Why it even was there, he didn't know. What had they expected? That he would just eat some soup that wasn't even cooled down to a cold temperature?

He sat back in the window sill and slowly began to eat the ice-cream, though he eventually almost began to inhale it as his hunger took pulled him out of control (plus that it was probably the most delicious ice-cream he had ever tasted). He didn't take his eyes off of the man in front of him, who seemed delighted that he had gotten Jack to eat.

"My name is Nicholas St. North," the Russian began with a friendly smile. "I run this workshop, and with my helpers I create toys for the children of the world, whether they be naughty or nice."

"Almost sound like Santa Clause," Jack mumbled nonchalant with a mouth full of ice-cream, not noticing the awkward smile on North's face as he heard what he said, since he was too busy shoveling ice-cream into his mouth to notice. Amazingly enough, by getting something to eat, Jack had almost completely forgotten about being on guard towards him. ... How in the world could an ice-cream be that delicious? It was like it had been created by the Gods; so sweet, rich in taste, having the perfect consistence … It was just overall perfect. Maybe he should have taken a job at the Ice-Cream Shop instead of Starbucks, considering that he had a better knowledge of ice than coffee?

"You see Jack," North continued. "I am Guardian of Wonder; I protect the wonders of the children of the world from dangers with my fellow guardians, Tooth, Sandy and Bunny. We were all chosen to do it, like you were."

Jack stopped in the middle of shoveling another spoonful of ice-cream into his mouth, already having managed to eat half of the ice in the bowl. He had been chosen? What in the world did he mean? Was that the reason they had kidnapped him? "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked with a cautious expression, as he laid the spoon back into the bowl, and lead his hand towards his hidden weapon, trying not to draw attention towards what he was doing. He had a weird feeling in his gut about what was coming, and he didn't like it.

"That means you are Guardian," North said, hoping that Jack would believe him. "You are the Guardian of Fun, Jack Frost. You bring winter to world and snow days to children, and like me you were chosen by Man in Moon. You helped us stop Pitch, and you saved the children from living in fear and darkness. You live at lake in forest in Burgess, and have been spirit for three-hundred years."

Jack's eyes widened at what North had said, as his grip tightened around the spit under the duvet. He didn't notice that the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees, since he was already really cold, but North certainly did, and he knew it wasn't caused by the outside temperature nor the continuous wind, which circled around Jack. "At least give me a prober and true response," Jack hissed at the older male. He didn't want fairytales and lies, but the truth about what was going on.

"It is the truth Jack, and you know that I do not lie."

Anger started to show itself on Jack's face. How could that guy even think that he was Jack _Frost_? He was just an ordinary human teenager, and not some mythological creature or spirit, as North implied him to be. Yes, he had dreamed of Jack Frost, and he had looked exactly like him, despite a few details, and it had been unsettling for the teen, but that meant nothing. Did North somehow know about his dream, and was trying to play with his mind by bringing it up? But was it even possible for him to know about it? No of course not, not unless he had been reading his mind while he slept or something. "You have me mistaken for someone else, I am _not_ Jack Frost; I am Jackson _Overland_ Frost. I don't even know you people, so why in the world do you think you can just kidnap me and hold me against my will, not to forget bringing magic and whatever into my life?" In truth he was terrified, and tried to cover it up with anger and vemon, since he couldn't play any pranks at the moment to get it all out of the system.

His venom filled voice shocked North, who looked at him with big eyes, speechless for a moment. He couldn't even recall when he had ever heard Jack talk like that, if he ever had. Maybe he had handled this in a completely wrong way? "Jack, listen to me, you have lost your memory, I do not know how, but you have; we will find a way to make you remember, but until then be patient, and believe in what I have to say."

Jack's grip around the spit tightened, when their eyes locked. He was ready to attack the old man and prepared to fight for his life - more like freedom in this case - if he had to, in order to get away from this crazy house, but he wasn't prepared for what North said next.

"You must already know deep down that what I am saying is the truth. Do not tell me that you have never felt out of place or wished to know why you do not fit in; you may think it is because you have wrong clothes or haircut. You may feel that you do not understand what teenagers talk about around you, and you don't know what to do with yourself, which is why you try to make fun of everything you do to fill out the emptiness you feel, while you have always done so, because that is all you know how to do, whether you be mortal or spirit. You _need_ fun, because that is your center. You are not like mortals, Jack. It is because you are guardian, you need to be free and not stuck like _this._ You have need to create blizzards and snow days and play with children – you connect with them better than others, and you must know that. What I tell you are the truth, Jack, you feel lost because you do not belong in the world of humans anymore; you are Spirit of Winter, Guardian of Fun. You are Jack Frost, and like a son to me, and –"

Without realizing it, Jack suddenly stood up, with narrowed eyes and starred at North. He didn't want to listen anymore. He couldn't. The spit was being pointed threatening against the old man, as a shadow crawled across Jack's face. "Get out." Jack's voice was distant, yet it was strong and powerful when he spoke. He wanted North to leave him, even if it meant that he would be alone with the wind again, and not be able to ever get away from this place. He didn't even care if what he was doing at the moment would prove to be a huge mistake from his side, meaning they would punish him later on. He just wanted him gone one way or another. "Get the hell out!"

"No need to get violent," North began, but Jack simply growled at him. He had normally never expected Jack to be the type to threaten any one, yet alone create a weapon somehow to protect him-self, but this wasn't his Jack. This was a mortal and scared version of him, who had no idea what was going on, and didn't want to listen to something that was out of what was considered natural. He was afraid, it was obvious, and he was angry too.

"No!" Jack spit at him, making North back away. The wind was blowing furiously around them both, sending its icing cold against the old male and made him shiver. "I won't listen to you, just get out. I don't want to see you again, even if it means I'm going to be locked up in this stinking room for the rest of my life!" North backed out into the hallway, watching Jack who was being held back by the invisible wall he had created, so only Jack was being locked up. "Just go away and leave me alone, and take your food with you!" Jack tossed the tray with food after North but missed him, so it splashed up against the wall, creating a loud noise as plates were smashed and fell to the floor beneath.

A loud bang sounded when Jack slammed the door shut, leaving a speechless North standing in the hallway.

Angry as he was, Jack started to pull furniture in front of the door to block it, so no one could enter. If he was going to be locked up, then he would at least be it by his own will. He pulled dressers, chairs, tables, even a closet to the door to block out anyone with the interest of coming in.

The wind first quieted down when Jack had finished and stood with a bowed head, when he had put the last piece of furniture in front of the door. His whole body was trembling, but not because of anger. His anger had disappeared while he had been in the middle of replacing the dresser. It was something else.

He was scared. He had just tried to hide it to himself ever since he woke up this morning, but now, after North had talked to him and he had _redecorated,_ it was impossible for him to keep it at bay.

North had been right in what he had said, about Jack feeling like he didn't belong with anyone or anywhere. He had been right in everything. It was like that man had read him like an open book, and it scared him. Something in Jack had even told him, that North had been telling the truth, even the part about being a spirit of some sort. But he didn't want to believe him. He didn't want to believe in anything he had heard the Russian tell him.

He just wanted to go home and live a normal life again, and not be locked up in some strange palace filled with mystical creatures and monsters. It wasn't too much to ask for, to simply want to go home and live his normal lonesome life, while trying to prank every person he could get a grip on. It was what he wanted and what he needed, but somehow he knew it wouldn't happen anytime soon, if ever.

A suppressed sob sounded from the trembling teen's lips, as he stood alone in the room, while the wind gently ruffled his hair. He didn't want to cry, he wasn't the type to do so. He was the happy-go-lucky teenager who always caused mischief wherever he went, and crying over something like being kidnapped wasn't something he would ever have considered. So he didn't cry. It couldn't help him either way, so what was the point? It wasn't like it could open a gateway back to Burgess, and make him forget about everything that had been going on.

"It's just you and me again, huh, Wind." Jack mumbled as he, for reasons unknown even to himself, walked up to stand in the window frame - if he lost his footing now, then he would fall to his death. Not that he wanted to kill himself at all, he just had a habit of standing in places like these. The wind was trying to push him back from the danger of falling, knowing he wouldn't survive the possible fall, but Jack ignored it and closed his eyes, letting the darkness and cold surround him.

Besides, what was better than cold and dark, when you were alone and needed to clear your mind?


	8. Painful Laughter

**You know what? My parents did a pretty good job in timing when to have kids. Both my two sisters and I has our birthdays placed in the last part of July; the 17th, the 26th and the 29th. If that isn't called timing, I don't know what is. And then there's my younger brother who has his in September, but he doesn't count.**

… **I'm a little unsure of this chapter however, and had difficulties with what I was supposed to write and such, but I hope it turned out sort of alright at least, if not, then please bear over with it.**

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It had been four days since Jack had locked himself up in his room. Snow was for once falling outside the Pole, and was being tossed around by the wind, since the wind wasn't able to get into the room where Jack was occupied at the moment. So as it did what it was supposed to do, its work was being observed by a few of the elves who weren't busy watching the two holiday spirits discussing behind them in North's office.

Though the elves normally just would have walked away, whenever Santa and the Easter Bunny was having a discussion about which holiday was more important than the other and why, then this time, for some reason, they almost looked expectantly at the two arguing figures, as if they hoped it would evolve into an actual fight. It might have been leftovers from when they were still bandits, or simply a new way for them to entertain themselves, when they weren't testing the toys, which caused them to watch the two, waiting for the argument to evolve. Nobody could tell why the elves were doing it at the moment, since barely anyone could tell what was going through their heads.

The two arguing men were standing in front of one another, not focusing on anything else than the person in front of them.

They had been at it for almost half an hour already, and despite that you would think that they should have tried to figure a way to help Jack regain his memory about who he really were, then they had simply started one of their usual arguments. It wasn't like they hadn't tried to find a way to help their youngest member, because they had; in fact they had tried to come up with different ideas, of how to make him believe them and remember for hours before the argument had started, when North had said something about having too much to focus on with both Jack and the upcoming Christmas, which had caused Bunny to imply that Jack was more important than Christmas and Easter combined. It might not seem like enough to start a discussion, but they were both under stress, not knowing how to help their newest addition to their family or how to make him able to calm down, when there were magic or supernatural beings around him.

Just the fact that he had locked himself up, after North had tried to tell him who he really was, had been enough for the guardians to truly wonder if they would ever get the real Jack back. Not to mention that he hadn't even tried to hide his anger behind sarcasm and a careless attitude, when he had been informed. To do such a thing was out of character for him, and despite their best efforts then they couldn't seem to figure what to do about it.

Or what to do if MiM got angry when seeing Jack like this. Just the mere thought was enough for them to shiver.

The only light for them at the moment was that North could get near Jack without him being too scared, which had been proven when he had been in Jack's room and actually held a conversation with him, before Jack had threatened him with his homemade weapon; they probably should have removed the tools from the room before Jack had wakened, when they first had brought him there, but they hadn't given it a thought back then.

Luckily Bunny had gotten in and removed the tools that same night, when Jack had been asleep, though he hadn't been able to find the spit, which North had told him about. He wouldn't have wondered if it was placed under Jack's pillow, but since he wouldn't risk waking up the boy, he hadn't dared to try and search. Instead, after he had thrown all the tools into the tunnel he had opened, making it fall into North's office, he had sat in the only chair that hadn't been stacked up against the door and watched Jack sleep.

It wasn't a lie that Bunny enjoyed being able to see Jack again, though he knew he would be called a 'creepy creeper kangaroo' or something by Jack if he had been his normal self, and not who he was now. He wouldn't deny that he already was missing the pranks Jack occasionally made in his Warren, like freezing his sentinel eggs or making snow fall from the sky, despite the constant spring. Even the arguments he and Jack had most of the time. To make it short, then he simply missed his friend, though he wouldn't admit it to anyone. Ever.

The Guardian of Hope hadn't been able not to simply sit and watch his sleeping friend, feeling sad because Jack didn't remember him, or any of the others for that matter, and frustrated because he couldn't help him regain his memory, without it causing him to freak out because of his appearance. That was the only time Bunny had hated the way he looked. Had he only been human, like North, then he would be able to help Jack by having a conversation with him, and hopefully set a spark in his memory. But that couldn't happen, and he knew that, so instead he had to be patient, just like Tooth and Sandy, before they could start seeing Jack again and try to help from the sidelines.

Eventually, Bunny had to get back to North, so they could figure what to do with their friend. Sandy and Tooth were both busy with work, so they wasn't able to stay like Bunny, since Easter was still half a year away, and they couldn't afford to skip their jobs, so therefore North had told them that he would send the Northern Lights upon the sky when they were needed. Tooth hadn't been much for not being able to take care of Jack, but she had agreed either way, knowing there weren't much she could do, and left the Pole with Sandy, who, on the other hand, would come and give Jack a dream about his past as a guardian, when they would find Jack asleep in the room. It was a plan they had made when they first had put him to sleep, and they were hoping it was working.

The only problem was that they didn't know, since Jack hadn't been outside the room for four days, other than when he had had to use the bathroom.

Those times were the only ones North actually saw him. As far as he knew, Jack would remove the furniture, just enough for him to be able to open the door and stand before the invisible wall, and then he would yell after North, who then would follow him to the bathroom. At first he had thought that it was a plan for Jack to try to escape, and it had seemed like he had thought the same thing, but he hadn't, surprisingly enough, though he had seemed a bit frustrated and regretful over his situation, the first two or three times. After he had done what he had had to do, he had simply been walked back to his room, not speaking a single word to his companion either way, gotten a bit of food with him, and then, as far as North could hear, put the furniture back in front of the door, blocking it once again.

North didn't know why, but he somehow felt as if it was a small step in the right direction that Jack would let him lead him to the bathroom without panicking, after what had happened when he had tried to tell him about being a guardian. It probably wasn't something to be overly excited about, but he liked to be optimistic at least, and think of it as something good.

But right now, both Bunny's and North's thoughts were completely elsewhere than at the problem at hand, as arguments and reasons were being send back and forth between the two of them.

They didn't even know when in their friendship they had started to argue about which holiday was the best, it might have been the first day they met, or when they both started to think their holiday was the most important. None of them knew, but they couldn't help but do it anyway; it was just as much a part of their friendship, like it was with Jack's and Bunny's, with the constant teasing from Jack about Bunny being a kangaroo.

A low and distant, yet familiar, noise was being caught by Bunny's great hearing. First he ignored it, as he was too caught up in explaining why hope was better than wonder, but eventually the sound was ripping his attention away from the argument at hand. He looked towards the door with a curious expression, ignoring North's talk about why Christmas presents were better than Easter Eggs, since they didn't rot, and frowned as he tried to concentrate on the sudden noise, for some reason finding it important.

He had trouble hearing it clearly and make sense of it, there were simply too much noise coming from the Guardian of Wonder. "Shut up North, I'm tryin' ta listen."

North went silent when he heard the serious tone in Bunny's words, and looked confused at his friend, whose ears were turning in every direction, to focus on the sound he heard.

Bunny opened the door to the office to hear more clearly, and stood silent in the door way, concentrating on the sound.

It took a while, due to the continuous background noise coming from the Workshop, but he eventually figured out the voice, who it was coming from, and what it was saying, or rather, doing. Bunny opened his eyes, confused over what he heard. Could it be that Jack was… laughing? Well, he was the Guardian of Fun, so it was only natural for him to have fun, and make everything a game, but something didn't seem right. It wasn't because that there were basically nothing in Jack's room which could provide him with that much fun, he had noticed that when he had removed the tools they had left in there by accident, but it was something else, something that told him that everything with Jack's laughter implied that something was wrong. Really wrong.

He didn't like it. He knew that when something sounded different in Jack's laughter, it meant that something was up whether it was good or bad, was unknown of, but this time he could definitely tell that this wasn't good.

"I think we gotta check up on Frostbite."

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Jack _was_ laughing.

He was laughing for what seemed to be no reason at all. He didn't completely know why he did it or if he was able to stop himself; he was simply just laughing as if everything was perfectly fine. But they weren't, not even close.

He had blocked the door so no one could get in or out unless he removed the barricade, yet this man had still appeared in the room. How, he didn't know. It couldn't have been through the door or the window, since both were closed, yet he was pretty sure this man couldn't just have appeared from the shadows like he had first thought he did. That was simply impossible, but in all honesty what couldn't be possible anymore, considering there now existed fairies, magic, monsters, humanoid bunny-kangaroos and sandmen?

This man had just appeared from out of nowhere like some magician of some sort. It was just weird, and he looked rather creepy as he just stood there in front of Jack, with his arms folded on his back and a way too proud posture. Jack barely remembered him from his first day in Burgess, walking around with a shepherd's hook, and as the picture he had created in his head, when he had thought about a costume for Halloween, of the King of Nightmares. That though had only made him laugh harder, since it had just occurred to him that he had thought about dressing as this man for the holiday. How awkward wouldn't it have been, if he had actually been dressed like him, and then he would have come to get a coffee at Starbucks, seeing some kid being dressed up as him?

Yet Jack had no other idea who he was or why he was there, all he knew was that it was a laugh all of it; right from the very situation, to the stranger's appearance, his posture and the missing eyebrows. Just looking at those things was enough for Jack to explode with laughter even more, though he knew he should probably be terrified by the sudden appearance of a stranger in a locked up room, but he honestly didn't care at the moment, since he was out of control of his emotions right now, and what he did and what he said was nothing he was master of anymore, so he had just let himself lose control and started laughing.

His hysteric laughter didn't seem to affect the man however, all he did, was simply just standing there in the corner with the shadows, while watching as Jack was doing what he did. His facial expression showed no sign of any emotions or thoughts; he just stood and observed the teen. He didn't even move a muscle.

Jack's eyes had gotten teary, and his stomach had long since started to hurt, but he couldn't seem to bring himself to an end, and he thought he might have lost his control for good. Was it normal to laugh for no reason at all? Was that a bad sign? Unless there was a reason, but he simply couldn't see it? Maybe it was the fatigue which was causing this, or maybe it was the knowledge that he would probably never get home and he was simply laughing it off. Maybe it was the fact that a man had appeared from out of nowhere, or simply just the ridicules appearance the stranger had? Whatever it was that had caused Jack to laugh like this, he didn't know whether he should be thankful or hateful towards it; he needed a good laugh, he really did, but he didn't know if it was a good thing at the moment to lose focus on trying to find a safe way out of this place, which didn't involve him climbing out the window like some fairytale princess caught up in a tower. It would probably be hilarious to watch, but he wouldn't dare losing his life like that, when there were at least five floors down, if not more.

While he was still laughing, the stranger asked him a question, but he didn't hear it. He was too caught up in what he was doing that he simply couldn't; a bomb could have exploded right beside him, and he would still just have laughed like there were no tomorrow. Even when the stranger asked him again, he didn't hear over the sound he was making and the painful feeling in his stomach by laughing too hard stole all his attention away.

He should probably have tried to listen so he could answer the question, because the next thing he knew, the stranger appeared behind him, putting a hand on each side of his face and forcing his still laughing face backwards, so chocolate brown eyes stared into silver-golden yellow eyes, which more or less resembled an eclipse.

They stared into each other's eyes for a moment, before the stranger lowered his head so their foreheads met, and the second they made contact, Jack's laughter died as if it had never been there to begin with. His eyes widened as a strange and painful sensation shot from the spot their heads met, and through his body. He didn't move or even breathe as it happened, it was just too painful. His mouth opened to scream of pain, but nothing came out, whilst tears of pain fell from his eyes. He began to feel drained, and he felt as if his mind was being completely emptied. In the end he almost couldn't even remember his own name; the moment his own name had been erased from his mind, images went through his mind like some sort of a mute movie, but they were too quick for him to catch and make sense of at first.

A whispering voice from the stranger was all that kept Jack from passing out as the pain in his body had become intense, and at some point felt like his whole being were set on fire.

He wanted to scream, he really did, but despite his best efforts, he couldn't get even the smallest sound out, as if he had lost the ability to speak.

The pain stopped the moment the stranger broke contact with the teen, after what had felt like hours for Jack, but had been nothing more than a few minutes. Jack immediately fell to his knees, blankly starring up the ceiling, while his head was being filled with all his memories; some were replaced, some were deleted as others were being made clearer to him - his family in Oregon, his school life, his hobbies, everything was being brought back to him like it had never been gone to begin with. That, and…

He didn't hear what the man said – his ears were ringing, causing every sound around him to drown in the noise. He didn't see, hear or feel anything other than the new and old memories that went through his mind. He just sat there, starring, while his mind was being manipulated, and didn't see the black sand that was dancing around him, until it would disappear when its job was done nor did he see the man disappear into the shadows as if he had never been there, and he didn't hear the wind slamming against the window, trying to force it open to get in or see the heavy snow it brought with it. He didn't either feel the tears who continued to fall from his eyes or the arching he felt through his whole body, left by the pain or anything else for that matter.

When the play of memories came to an end, Jack was barely even aware of his surroundings or where he was. He didn't even remember the slightest about the stranger as the past minutes of events had been erased from his memory as if they had never happened in the first place.

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"Oi, Frostbite, ya okay in there?" Bunnymund called, knocking the door. He didn't care whether Jack would freak out about him being there or not, because he was worried; Jack's laughter had stopped when he and North had walked to his room, and it normally wasn't a good sign if Jack suddenly stopped laughing like that. It meant something was up.

"Jack, it is North," North tried with a gentle yet worried voice. "We are worried for you, you open door for us?"

Still no response.

The two guardians' exchanges worried glances. They knew Jack could be just as stubborn as Bunny, and would toss something nonchalant their way if he felt like it, but he wasn't the type to simply stay quiet when someone asked him a question, whether he was spirit or mortal, then he always replied, even when if it were in one of his arguments with Bunny. It didn't make sense why he wouldn't be doing it now, unless something was off with the kid, but he could be sleeping of course.

They knocked the door again, trying to make him answer, but still they were met with nothing but silence from the other side of the door. Bunny tapped his feet on the ground, opening a tunnel, but was being hindered in jumping into it, when North held an arm out to prevent him from doing it.

"What you doing?"

"I'm gonna check up on 'im, to see if that ankle biter is alright in there," Bunny said in annoyance, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He ain't gonna see me, North, I'm gonna hide in the barricade he's made; if anything's wrong, I'm gonna let ya know, if not, then we know he's alright, and don't need to worry 'bout 'im." With that being said, he went under North's outstretched arm, and dived into the tunnel, almost hitting his head against a table when he a second later popped up on the other side of the door.

He found Jack sitting on the floor, staring blankly into the ceiling. It didn't seem like anything happened in that head of his nor that he had been laughing like crazy a few minutes before. Bunny noted the tearstains on Jack's cheeks, and felt a weird feeling spread in him. As far as he knew, Jack would never cry, he would get sad, but never _actually_ cry. He was too carefree to do that. Even when Sandy had been lost to Pitch he had still declined to shed any tears, so the sight of old tears, was somewhat unsettling for the Easter Bunny. It made him wonder if Jack was as carefree as he thought he was. Maybe three-hundred years of being alone and ignored had left its mark in the boy after all? Could it be that his happy and mischievous attitude was simply a way to hide what he really felt?

He shook the thought off of him, knowing, or at least thinking that he knew, that Jack wasn't the type to let something like that influent him, or at least he hoped so.

A few minutes passed, as he was observing Jack, but he wasn't moving even the smallest muscle, actually it barely seemed like he was breathing at all. Worried as he was, Bunny crawled out of the tunnel and hiding place, and began walking to his absent-minded friend, worrying what was wrong with him. "Ya alright, Jack?"

Jack blinked as his name was being said, and got pulled back to reality. His head felt messed up and like his brain had been replaced with jelly, but he still somehow had managed to hear the Australian voice who had talked to him, despite the ringing for his ears, which now disappeared as he came back to his senses.

He lowered his head, making Bunny stop up in his steps towards him and stare, as Jack turned his head against him, looking at him with a frown and slightly confused expression. The teen opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again, as he was unsure of what to say. He looked away from Bunny, and down to his hands, seeing troubled about something. He opened and closed them over and over, his mouth forming words, but not making any sound. He held his hands up in front of him, moving them in the air, as if he held a long object, while he held a thoughtful expression upon his face, before his gaze wandered to the room, searching it with his eyes, as if he missed something important.

Bunny wondered what he was doing, while he had started to back away from the searching teen. He didn't know what was going on with Jack at the moment, but he somehow felt that now was a good time to go, so he tapped his foot on the floor, and opened a tunnel.

Jack looked back up at the Pooka, as the tunnel appeared; the second their eyes locked, Bunny stopped up as he was about to jump into the hole in the floor, watching as Jack opened his mouth, with confusion written all across the teen's face. His question came slow and forced, almost as if he had a hard time maintaining his focus, "where's my staff?"

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_**Guest000004682**_: Oh my, really, thank you! I'm so happy that you're enjoying it so much; I can't even tell you how happy I got by reading your review, and felt so proud after doing so. Honestly speaking then I don't even think I'm that great at writing, so it's kind of, I don't know, flattering to hear that you think I have talent. - What goes for all your guesses with what could happen, then, believe it or not, they actually helped me with figure what I wanted to happen next – I really felt empty for ideas when I had published the last chapter, so reading your guesses really helped me out a lot! Once again, thank you! What goes for Jack's staff, and clothes then I can't tell you that, it would sort of be a spoiler, if you could call it that, though I guess you would be able to guess who's in possession of those after reading this chapter. If not then I guess it will come as a surprise~

_**Taranodongirl1**_: Thanks for thinking it's a good chapter! ?〈(゜。゜) - The same as if Bunny would appear I guess. They're both supernatural creatures after all, and even though Jack has come to terms with the thought of both being kidnapped and magic existing, then I think they would still manage to freak him out in one way or another. Just see how he reacted with North being around, when he tried to tell him the truth about his true identity. He's not really cool about the situation yet, if he ever will be, I still haven't decided, but I guess time will show what happens.


	9. To the Next Step

**I don't know why, but every time I hear "_Alone in the World_" or "_Still dream (piano & string version)_" I just feel like crying, like really! Am I the only one who feels like that? Don't tell me I am, that would just be embarrassing… ｡･ﾟﾟ･(´д`)･ﾟﾟ･｡**

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Bunny stared surprised at the teen in front of him, while hope and confusion was raging inside of him, battling against each other in the fight of which to take over. The sudden question had taken him aback, and he almost couldn't believe his own ears. Had Jack just remembered? Was that even possible for him? He wasn't supposed to be able to remember anything about them at the moment, so how come he remembered _now_? Great, now it sounded as if he didn't want him to remember anything, but it was great that he remembered again, however, despite the happy feeling that had settled in the Easter Bunny's chest, he couldn't help but wonder just what had caused Jack's memory to come back to him; it wasn't like something had happened in the room, while he and North hadn't been around, which had helped him remember nor that anyone had been in here, because then Bunny would be able to smell it, and right now it held nothing else but Jack's scent.

This was just… unexpected.

Just as unexpected as the blizzard of '68 had been, though this time it was a pleasant surprise.

"Ya remember?" He looked at the teen with a mix of disbelieve and happiness, almost unable to hide a smile, though he couldn't help but feel like it was too good to be true; to have the troublemaking, trickster, happy, immortal Jack was something all the guardians looked forward to and hoped to happen soon, but yet it just seemed so sudden.

Jack, who meanwhile had chosen to look out the window where the wind was throwing the snow around, looked back at Bunny, his confused and concentrating expression not changing the slightest as he tilted his head. It seemed like he did not recognize the Easter Bunny at all, like he was a stranger, though this time he wasn't afraid, which surprised Bunny. It was a huge difference from when Jack had been 'kidnapped' a few days before, and now it just seemed so unreal in some sort. "Remember?" He asked slowly and confused, still seeing as if he tried to concentrate. "Remember what? Do I – do I _know_ you?"

Bunny's shoulders fell in defeat. It _had_ been too good to be true. He should have known better than not to hope for a miracle to happen by it-self, especially not when it was with guardians and whatever magic had caused Jack to turn human. What magic could even do that anyway? Now that he thought about it, he had never heard of a spirit turning mortal, and not to forget a guardian too for that matter. Could it be that there was some new spirit wandering around with those powers? Was that even possible to be granted such magic? But what if Manny had, for some reason unknown, chosen to turn Jack human? He wouldn't do that to anyone, would he?

Doubt settled in the Pooka as he started to wonder about it, but he shrugged it off. No of course not, Manny liked Jack; the guardians knew that, well not Jack when he still was him and not – _him_, as he was now, but there were still no way Manny would do such a thing to one of his favorite spirits (yes, believe it or not, then the big MiM had favorites; it had even come as a surprise to Bunny when he had first found out about it, and especially when he figured Jack was one of them) it would be like a punishment for a spirit to be exposed for such an experience, and not matter how deep in trouble Jack could get, then he didn't deserve being turned into a mortal, no spirit did, because they mostly would have no idea of how to interact with either humans or technology, not to mention end up locked away in some asylum because of their knowledge of the spirits that resided all over the world.

So _why_ had Jack turned out to become like this?

"Hello?" Jack called, snapping his fingers in front of the Pooka's nose, when he hadn't answered his question. He looked slightly confused at the guardian who was too into his thoughts to notice the attention seeking teen. "Hey Kangaroo, someone home on the first floor? Cat got your tongue? Hello~?"

Though the Easter Bunny felt down over having had set his hopes set up after too much, he couldn't help but notice what Jack had just called him. It was only _their_ Jack, who called him that, so maybe, just _maybe_, Jack had actually started to remember something from his past as spirit anyway? What could it hurt to try to find out just how much he remembered? "What's ya name?"

Jack seemed surprised at the sudden question, but eventually chose to answer with what seemed to have been a smirk, though it disappeared as he tried to concentrate. "My name is Jack–"

Bunny couldn't help but let his hopes go up, as Jack began to tell his name.

"-son Overland Frost."

The blossoming hope in his chest vanished just like that, as the answer from Jack crushed it, like it had been nothing more than withered leaf under a boot. But Bunny couldn't give up this quickly, he _had_ to hope, it was his center after all, and if Jack had remembered something, something which every one of the guardians knew was important to him then it meant something. It had to do. "Alright Jackson, I understand that ya remember yer staff, but what else do ya remember?"

"I need the staff," he looked helplessly at the Pooka – an expression he did _not_ want to see on that boy's face again. Dammit, why did Jack _have_ to be like _this_?! "It's important; I really, _really_ need it. I have to get it back."

Bunny nodded in understanding, despite the troubled thoughts that had arrived with Jack's helpless expression. Of course Jack would need it, it had been his tool for over three-hundred years, and sometimes it had even seemed like he had had a personal and _special_ connection to it, which was much deeper than what outsiders would be able to understand. Sometimes Bunny would be able to catch Jack in looking at the staff in pure boredom, with a somewhat longing expression upon his face, other times it would be a sad or thankful smile or maybe, and, Bunny was almost certain he had imagined it, with blank eyes, as if the mischievous spirit was about to cry. Whatever it was with that staff that made it so important to Jack, not only the whole power-source thing, but also the emotional part, then it was a huge part of his life, whether it had been when he had still been human or not, he didn't know, but it wasn't important; what was important right now, was that Jack had _remembered_ it. "I understand that ya need it, but I have to ask ya a few things first, 'kay?"

Jack hesitated but nodded. He was too upset about not having the staff that he didn't care about being sarcastic or anything like he usually was.

"Alright Frostbite, then tell me this, why is it important?" Better start out with figuring if he remembered why he needed it that much, right?

The teen looked down and frowned as he concentrated for a long while, almost for so long that Bunny doubted that he was ever going to answer. "I don't know," he finally admitted with a somewhat sad expression. "I just need it."

Bunny held back a sigh. "I understand that; why do ya need it?"

"Because I don't … want to …"

"Ya don't want to what?"

"I don't know…" Jack said with an apologizing smile.

"Do ya know where it is?"

This time Jack looked at Bunny with a blank expression. "Where is what?"

"The staff."

Jack's expression changed, so he almost looked like a small child who had to remember something it was supposed to know, but had long ago forgotten everything about. "What … staff?"

"The staff ya asked 'bout." The Guardian of Hope mentally face-palmed, and couldn't help but feel a bit of frustration spread in him, as it showed that Jack apparently already had forgotten about his own question, which he had asked not even five minutes earlier. That gumpy couldn't seriously already have forgotten, could he? He knew Jack was quite forgetful but this was ridiculous.

"What are you talking about?" Jack frowned as he watched the distressed Pooka in front of him, while something began to change in his eyes. What it was, and why it did it, Bunny couldn't tell, but before he could even start to figure it out, a surprised yelp escaped from the teen, as if he first now realized who he had been talking to this whole time. Shocked by the sudden realization, he began crawling backwards, away from the Pooka in front of him. "_You_! What are you doing in here? None of you are supposed to be able to get in!" He exclaimed with trepidation in his voice, as his back hit against the wall near the window, preventing him from getting further away.

The wind was reacting to his sudden change of emotions, as it began to slam itself against the window, trying to pry it open, but was left locked out on the other side, not able to come to its friend's aid, despite it knew it wasn't able to do much for him.

Bunny noted the sudden change the wind made, shortly after Jack's reaction. He was confused, but still lifted his paws into the air in front of him, showing that he meant no harm when he realized, or thought he realized, what was happening to the amnesia hit guardian, who at the moment was clumsily getting to his feet. "Easy there Frostbite, I ain't gonna hurt ya, I'm just askin' ya -"

"Stay away from me," the teen warned, cutting off the Pooka. "I am not letting some mutant kangaroo near me."

"Oi, I am not a kangaroo mate," Bunny started, for some reason letting the fact that Jack had just called him a kangaroo twice already get on his nerves, despite that Jack probably didn't even know what he was saying was his own created nickname for him.

"And all this time I thought you was," Jack said in a thick layer of sarcasm, trying to hide away his trepidation in it, while trying to act calm. "If you're not a kangaroo, what are you?"

"I'm a bunny, the _Easter_ Bunny," Aster stated as he felt déjà vu due to the conversation they were having. It reminded him of the discussion they had had the day Jack had been chosen as a guardian two years ago. Too much in fact. Maybe that troublemaker remembered something after all, but just didn't know he did?

Jack rolled his eyes, "more like the Easter Kangaroo if you ask me," he mocked. His expression clearly showed that he did not believe what Bunny just had said about being who he said he was. But what was to be expected? He was a seventeen year old mortal, who long ago had stopped believing in stuff like the Easter Bunny, and now 'knew' that no such thing existed. It was a normal part of growing up.

"Listen up Frostbite; I ain't no bloody kangaroo–"

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North stood in the hallway, waiting for Bunny to come back from checking up on Jack. He didn't feel good about Bunny being in there, and that it took him so long to do so. After all he had only been meant to go in, make sure Jack was okay and then head back out, not hang around for a whole hour.

Maybe something was wrong with Jack, and that prevented him from getting back out, North thought. The only problem with that theory, was that Bunny had said that he would call for him if that was the case, and since Bunny was a man of his words, believe it or not, then North trusted that everything was okay in there, yet he couldn't help but feel restless since he couldn't hear anything of what was going on. It frustrated him, not being able to do anything else than wait. He couldn't go back to help out the yetis with the preparations for Christmas either, in case Bunny needed him for something for some reason, so the jolly old man was basically stuck beside that door until something changed one way or another.

What in the world was taking Bunny so long?

The Guardian of Wonder took a deep breath to settle his nerves, as he began to worry for the two guys. He knew he shouldn't worry, at least not for Bunny that was, he knew how to take care about himself and all, no doubt about that, but the worry was more pointed against Jack. Just imagining how that boy would react if he saw the Pooka was enough for North to feel on edge. He was worried if Jack would react the same way as he had done when he had seen the yeti, who, by the way, still felt guilty about having caused such panic in the now mortal spirit, and had needed to take a day off. Apparently causing a child to get that scared just by its appearance, had taken its toll on it, not that North could blame it since he knew that a lot of human children would act like that if they saw something they thought of as scary. He couldn't help but wonder how Jack had reacted the first time he had seen a yeti when he was a spirit. Maybe he had acted the same, or simply found them interesting and seen them as a new way to pass time; he had apparently somehow befriended Phil while the yeti had thrown Jack out countless of times from breaking in, so North held to the last suggestion in that theory.

The Cossack let a hand slide down his face, as his thoughts began to wander off to all the toys that yet had to be prepared – only two months and they were too behind schedule. It wasn't good, but he had to have faith in that they would make it; Christmas was more important that Easter after all, and the yetis were doing their best to get back on schedule, even without North being around them for a few days. He needed to go check on the toys, make the last prototypes and check the naughty and nice lists again. He simply didn't have time for this!

He sighed and stared at the door, wondering about what was going on; had the door only been made of light wood and not heavy mahogany, then North would have been able to hear what was being said in there, and what was happening, but since that wasn't the case, then he had to wait for either Bunny to open a tunnel or Jack to unblock the door. He didn't want to use one of his snow globes to get to the other side of the door, since it would be a waste, considering that Bunny was already inside, and that the sudden appearance of a magical portal probably would scare Jack, and that was something he didn't want to happen. Bunny had probably already done a good job on that.

Finally, when a quarter of an hour had gone by, a wind-blown, cussing Easter Bunny appeared beside him from one of his tunnels. "… for the love of all Easter eggs out there, that ankle biter is a pain in tha neck, how does that gumpy think we can help 'im if he ain't bloody to any use 'imself? Gettin' real tired of yer shit Frosty, he should suck it up already, and – "

The annoyed mumbling didn't go unheard by North, who looked confused at his friend, knowing that if Tooth had been around to hear him, she would probably have started to scold him for talking like that, telling that it would ruin his teeth with such language; however he couldn't help but wonder if Bunny and Jack had gotten into one of their usual fights, since Bunny acted just like he used to do whenever they had been at it. He doubted it however, since that young boy wasn't himself. "What is wrong?"

Bunny stopped his cussing, and stared at North with a pissed expression. "What's wrong? I'm gonna tell ya what's wrong; what's wrong is that that ankle biter managed to remember his staff, North. His staff!"

"But that is good, no? Jack are beginning to remember then, that means –"

"Hold on, I ain't all done yet," the Pooka cut him off. "That overgrown icicle forgot almost as fast as he remembered it, and when I tried ta ask 'im 'bout it, he bloody forgot, and send his wind after me so I fell into my tunnel, when we discussed if I was a kangaroo or not, because I got too near 'im! Do ya even see what my fur looks like now? Just look at it!" He hold his arms out to show North his fur which still had a few snowflakes stuck into it, who still hadn't melted and wetted the grey fur, and the usual straight fur had gotten curly and pointed in every direction.

North didn't pay attention to Bunny's further grumbling about how it would take him forever to make it sit normal again, as his thoughts already had started to circle about what Bunny just had told him about Jack remembering and forgetting; if Jack had forgotten about his staff as soon as he had remembered it, then it meant that something was blocking his memory about it. Whatever was causing him to forget was probably also the source to why Jack was a mortal at the moment with amnesia about who he really was, or at least that was what North anticipated. But since Jack had remembered something as important as his staff, meant he had started to recover from whatever it was that had happened to him, and that was great! It meant that their plan with the dreams was going great, and they could start to, slowly, introduce him to magic and the other guardians, and, if everything went well, then that would mean he, would be able to accept them sooner or later. That would hopefully lead him to remember them, and maybe they with his help would be able to find a way to give him his powers back, besides, hadn't Bunny just said that Jack had gotten the wind to help him (despite North did not know further details in what had really happened in there)? Wasn't that a good thing that Jack at least had started to take comfort in something with such a major importance from his immortal life? Of course it was. This had been more than they could have hoped for to happen this soon.

But still... where was his staff? No one had seen it, since they last had seen Jack as a spirit back at the meeting before he had turned mortal, meaning something had happened to the boy after, but what wasn't something they could get an answer on before he could remember it. Else it would be like a cold case of some sort.

"My lairy ain't a laugh, North," Bunny grumbled, pulling North out of his thoughts, when a smile had crossed North's lips, which Bunny misread as a grin caused by his appearance.

Santa looked a moment at the Easter Bunny, shortly confused about what he meant, but only gave a light hearted shrug as response. He wouldn't start worrying over some fur, when they needed to inform Sandy and Tooth about what had happened; even if it was a small thing then it was of importance for them to know. Tooth wouldn't forgive the two of them, if she wasn't informed about even the smallest of information about Jack recovering; she really was like a mother hen when it came to that boy, and they all knew it was mostly because of her obvious crush on him and his teeth. "We need to inform others," he said and began to head towards the globe room, closely followed by a grumpy Easter Bunny.

They walked silently for a while, before Bunny broke it, as they walked down the last bit of a staircase; "what ya gonna tell 'em?" He couldn't really see there had happened something that was of such importance, that they needed to pull both Tooth and Sandy away from their jobs – yes Jack had remembered for a short while, but they were back as base one right now, so it didn't make any sense to disturb the two busiest guardians.

"I'm going to tell them we can proceed to next step in plan."

The Easter Bunny looked suspicious at the Cossack, not having a clue of what he was talking about – they hadn't talked about what they would do once Jack had started to remember his past, so of course he was confused, and worried for what the big man had in mind for the trickster. "What _plan_?"

"We're going to bring back Jack his memories, and introduce him to magic."

There was a moment of unpleasant silence before …

"Have ya lost yer mind!" Bunny exclaimed in disbelief, making a few yetis look their way as they passed. "Ya can't just introduce 'im ta magic, he's gonna freak like when he saw yer yeti! He's gonna get a heart attack! No one can tell what he'll do once he get introduced, he might accidently toss 'imself into doing crazy stuff, and –"

"But why were you in there for an hour then, if Jack cannot handle being shown magic?" North questioned, slightly entertained by the obvious concern from the other, as they entered the globe room, where some elves had fun with spraying each other with spray-paints, only Manny knows how they managed to get their grip on those.

Bunny opened his mouth to argue against it, but shut it again. He knew the Cossack had a point, but one thing was for Jack to be calm enough to handle a conversation with an obvious supernatural being as long as they kept their distance, another was for him to be calm enough to actually _see_ magic exposed in front of him without freaking out. But, no matter how little the Pooka wanted to admit it then he wanted that trickster of a spirit to come back to his senses as soon as possible. However, that did not mean he wanted Jack to get scared for his life more than he probably already was, but just hadn't shown while Bunny had talked to him. "What are ya goin' to do?"

"You'll see," North winked, and pushed down the lever, sending the aurora borealis upon the sky, signaling the Tooth Fairy and the Sandman to come. He was positive on that what he was planning for the young boy only could go great, he had trust in him, and he knew Jack would be able to accept what was going to be tossed his way; Jack was a spirit after all, whether he knew it or not, who had _remembered_, and that fact was enough for North to know it would work out, even if a certain furry spirit thought otherwise.

Besides, what could possibly go wrong?

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**Don't forget to review, us writers live of that shit! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°**


	10. Aurora Borealis

**My book, **_**Rise of the Guardians Concept Art**_** finally came with mail! I've never been so happy by getting my hands on a book like I was when that one. I was like opening the package with awe, of what I knew would be in it, and there it was. I was like mesmerized by it for a whole minute, before I even dared to touch it, and I'm telling you that book is nothing less but awesome! And when I reached the chapter about Jack I just... died… with a nosebleed…**

**Ugh, I can't wait to the other ROTG books I've ordered comes by the end of the month! (Hopefully not while I'm in Nice though… **** ┗┃・ ■ ・┃┛ )**

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The low sounds of a frustrated voice could be heard behind a locked door, which was enchanted to keep a single teenager locked up on the other side. This teen could be found walking back and forth, talking frustrated to – who most people would presume was no one – the wind. Despite that his senses told him t was abnormal then he knew the wind was there to support him, no matter how weird that might sound, both to himself and everybody else. For some reason he had begun to feel attached to the wind, as if it was an understanding creature, and worried about him.

As he walked back and forth, his eyes kept themselves locked on a vulnerable spring-flower, which seemed to not belong on the wooden floor from which it had chosen to sprout, though it would seem impossible for such a vulnerable creation to live a place like that. However, Jack knew it was a flower created by magic, as it had appeared when the overgrown bunny had disappeared into a tunnel, and said tunnel had closed, leaving no other trail behind of its ever existence than that little piece of nature.

The ill-timid flower was moving in the wind, which tossed itself around in the room through the open window, reflecting the emotions of the lonesome teen, as it did not know what else to do; it ruffled his hair in comfort, tried to tell him that everything would be okay but circling around him, and quiet down whenever he needed to think. But Jack was unknowing of his old friend, who wanted him to remember it again, to toss him around in the sky in a game, and let him feel like the free spirit he was supposed to be. The only problem was that what could the wind possibly do, now when its rider was a mortal? All mortals knew that wind was… wind and not something with neither feelings nor thoughts. Making the teen realize the opposite wasn't something which was possible for the wind, as Jack did not understand its cries and sweet whispering words of comfort any longer.

All it could do was to make him let its presence known, and not leave his side as long as he allowed it to enter the room. Soon it would be forced back out, when its rider would close the window when he felt too cold. It didn't have much time left with him, as it could sense the shiver from him due to the cold.

As its old friend kept talking to the wind, it merely listened, and waited for him to calm down, as it did not like seeing him like that; frustrated, shaken, and nervous. It wasn't something he showed to anyone, other than the wind, as it did not count in the category of people nor spirits, and it therefore knew what he truly felt, since when he was alone, he'd let his guard down, and hide away the mischievous and cocky attitude he used when he was around other people to protect himself from further harm, than he had already experienced during the three centuries of being alone. Even as the mortal he was now, he did the same thing; pretend to be okay, even if he wasn't. He had done it again, when the Easter Bunny had been there, and Jack had hid away his afraid and been cocky, in order to protect him-self, however, the second the Easter Bunny had left the room, his attitude had come back into being the hurt and lonely boy he was deep down. And he had started to spill his heart out to the wind, like he usually did, since it had been his only companion for so long, and frustrated talked about how he hated his situation, how he just wanted to go home and get back to his plain daily life, how he wanted to see his family even though they didn't want to see him… How much he hated the kangaroo for being so stubbornly annoying to listen to, yet had been glad to actually have had a conversation with someone who could actually respond, even if it was some weird Pooka, or whatever Bunny had said he was.

He silenced and kicked a lump of snow, which somehow had made it in through the window and found its way to the floor, spreading it through the room. He still couldn't believe that the kangaroo had kept on stating that he was _the_ Easter Bunny, despite everybody knew that that was only a fable, a child's believe. Even Jack knew there were no such thing as the Easter Bunny, and that it wouldn't be some humanoid bunny, but a small and fluffy bunny with a bowtie and a basket with eggs. However, Jack couldn't deny it would be pretty cool, if it showed that the Easter Bunny would be like the stubborn, six foot tall, warrior-like bunny, which he had just had a discussion with.

But he knew the Easter Bunny wasn't real, just like there was no Santa Clause who gave gifts to the nice well-behaving children, no Tooth Fairy to collect the teeth at night and leave a quarter in replacements and no Sandman to spread sweet dreams with his magical sand to the children of the world.

Yet Jack couldn't help but wonder just why Bunny, which he had learned the kangaroo's name was, had continued to state that he was _Peter Cottontail_. Maybe he had been brainwashed into thinking that he was? It was possible, wasn't it? Maybe it was the Cossack who was behind it, or it was a try to make Jack loose his mind for good?

A frown appeared on his face, as his thoughts fell upon North. As far as Jack knew, then that man created toys in this workshop, which he owned, and he created toys for children around the world with his helpers, like Santa. He owned this place, wherever this place was located, and he was apparently the leader of the kidnappers, which North had hinted to whenever he would talk to Jack, when he needed to go to the bathroom. North would try to make a conversation with him, even if Jack neither talked nor looked at the man at all, as he followed. All the words Jack ever said to him was; "_I need to use the_ _bathroom_," that was it. Then North filled out the silence with his constant jabbering about whatever was on his mind, while Jack just followed, trying not to listen to what the jolly old man had to say. He felt humiliated whenever he had to go use the bathroom; he felt like a child, who had been grounded for being naughty, and only had permission to get out of his room when he had to use the toilet.

It was annoying, and so very embarrassing that he had been demoted to that of a child, when he was a soon-to-be eighteen year old guy. His birthday was in less than a month after all, but he guessed that didn't matter in his situation right now.

He thoughtfully let his hand through his hair, when he had gone out of steam to be frustrated. Now he just felt empty again. The wind around him gently blew against him, though it made him shiver in the progress. He had been too caught in his frustration to notice the cold, and now the room was freezing, and he hadn't even noticed before now. A sigh escaped his lips, as he, for some reason, mentally apologized to the wind that he had to close the widow, so he wouldn't freeze his skin off. He probably should put the furniture back in place too, since they now didn't help him at all anymore – the kidnappers could get in anyway it seemed.

He turned to the big window to close it, but froze in his steps, as he stared upon the sky with huge eyes, filled disbelief and surprise due to what he saw.

Upon the sky was the aurora borealis, moving like a mesmerizing dance in the air, as a mist of colors against the darkening sky, and making the normally white snow in the wasteland reflect the colors making even the ground seem almost alive. The moon shone down as well, giving it extra effect of that of ghostly silver while a few moonbeams reached towards the ground, making it enchanting to watch.

It was beautiful. More beautiful in reality than he had ever thought it would be. All he had seen were pictures on the internet, but seeing it in reality… He had never thought he would actually see it with his own eyes, yet there it was, right in front of him. Guys probably shouldn't have dreams about seeing something like this nature phenomenon, but he couldn't help it. He was just too into the wonders of the nature.

A laugh of glee sounded from the excited teen, as he jumped up onto the windowsill in the open window, and stared up at the sight before him, completely enchanted by it. At least one good thing had come from being kidnapped, but he wouldn't think of his situation right now, not when one of his dreams had come true. In all honesty, he momentarily forgot about it. But he couldn't help it.

It was _magical_.

He was too caught in the enchanting scenery, too caught up in the joyful and peaceful feeling that spread inside him just by watching, that he did't see neither the Sandman nor the Tooth Fairy who flew towards the Russian palace a bit away, both hidden by the darkening twilight, and both stopping up to watch him, afraid that he'd might jump. But he didn't, and wouldn't, and they realized that, by seeing the expression on his face and the smile on his lips – he was so happy, so filled with joy… so peaceful, that it made them want to hug him, but they couldn't, and they both knew that. Not yet anyway. Not before he came back to them.

They watched him for a moment longer, before heading into the palace for their meeting, tossing one last glance towards the mesmerized teen, as they both disappeared from sight.

Time went by as Jack watched the aurora borealis upon the sky, and he lost track rather quickly, not caring for it at all, as he had gone absentminded, as his thoughts had traveled to the sky, while observing the dancing colors, taking a few pictures of it with his phone to keep the memory forever. How it had still managed to keep some battery was beyond him.

He didn't know how long he had stood there, watching, observing, wishing…

He wished to be able to fly among the colors in the sky, being tossed around by the wind in a dance, while he enjoyed the view, and the magic from the sight. He laughed at the thought, enjoying every moment of the thought of himself flying around up there, touching the particles from the sun which caused the phenomenon, though he knew it was impossible to do so. He thought about how amazing it would be to just be up there and watch it close up, though he couldn't help but know the view, from down where he stood, was amazing as well.

For a moment he wondered how it would look like if snow fell from the sky as well, just without the clouds to cover the sky, but he shook the thought away with a discrete shake with his head, unknowing of the slight, almost non-existent, frost that had started to spread under his palms, where he touched the windows frames, as he stood and watched.

And just for a split second… He wished he was Jack Frost, because then he would be able to do it… to fly, to dance in the wind, be carried like a snowflake, make it snow at his command, but the thought disappeared as quickly as it had come.

His smile disappeared, and disappointment stung in his heart as the Northern Lights began to fade, before it completely disappeared, leaving a star filled sky empty of color, while the moon stood alone, shining down on the now ghostly snow beneath, making it slightly glow white.

It had been so wonderful, but now it was just… over.

He wouldn't complain however, despite his disapproval of it being over; he had gotten to see it, and that was what was important. He had gotten a dream fulfilled, which he hadn't even dared to hope for. He had dreamed, but not set his hopes up for it. He was happy, and no one would ever be able to take this experience away from him.

With a slight smile on his lips, Jack stepped down the windowsill, closing the window and sneezed twice in the process, before he turned around and looked at the now useless barricade in front of the door. This was going to be exhausting, he knew that, and it didn't make it any better that he was beginning to tire as well, more than he had been all day. With a sigh he took a chair, and began putting at least a few of the furniture back into place. This wasn't entertaining to do, but what was the use of the barricade, when he now knew that the Pooka could come in anyway? If he could get in, then it probably meant that the other kidnappers could come in as well, so this barricade served nothing. It was utterly useless. He had sort of also begun to tire of the room feeling this empty; it felt uncomfortable, even if there were a lot of space for him to run around in, then it was just… annoying in some way.

It took him a while, maybe an hour or so, but he managed to set all furniture in place, though he had some real difficulties with the dresser and the closet, and with a sneezing that had interrupted him time and time over. Maybe he should have covered him in the duvet to keep warm while sky watching?

_Please don't tell I've caught a cold_, Jack thought as he now sneezed for the fifth time in a row, on his way to bed. All that physical work had tired him even more, and all he wanted now was to get some sleep. He was simply too tired to do anything else. He was half walking half limping to bed, as his foot hurt, since he had accidently tilted the dresser and had crushed it thanks to it, which had resulted in a lot of cussing from the teen.

Jack didn't think twice about snuggling into the duvet, rolling around in it, so he was like a cocoon, with hair on the top, like he remembered he did as a child, and made his sister do when they camped in either of their rooms. As he lay there, hidden away from the cold in the room in his comfortable warm cocoon, it didn't take long for him to fall into a sweet slumber.

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The four guardians were on their way to Jack's room, after their meeting had ended, and North had told them what he was planning for the youngster, though they hadn't really agreed to what he were planning on doing to that poor boy. He hadn't even given them all the details, meaning this was another of his surprises which only he could see the light in.

Tooth and Sandy wasn't so sure if it was a good idea for them to be around when they were going to get Jack, considering he was still fearful towards Bunny and North, and there were no telling how he would react when he saw Tooth again, after what had happened last he did; she feared that her Sweet Tooth would freak out like last and look at her like she was some sort of evil monster. Therefore she had chosen to walk as they headed towards their member's chamber.

The three male guardians had looked surprised at her, as she had chosen to walk instead of flying, but she had simply stated that she didn't want to scare Jack by flying, until he was ready to see that ability of hers again. They didn't argue, when they saw the determination in her eyes to her decision. Her only problem was that she had been so used to flying, that her legs had grown weak over the centuries. She had to be supported a bit by Sandy from time to time, who looked worried at her each time, and asked if she wouldn't rather fly, but she declined, determined to not use her wings this time. She couldn't help but feel weird, as walking felt so _alien_ to her. Maybe she really should start walk a bit again, when she didn't need to fly, like if she only needed to walk a few meters, just in the beginning, and then train herself up again?

Bunny, Sandy and North kept sending her worried glances as they walked, especially when she had to walk up the stairs, which seemed to exhaust her more than it should, but she was determined to walk, and therefore didn't use her wings, as she normally would do, even though her legs already had started to beg her to do so.

When they finally reached the designated door, they stopped up for a second glancing at each other, before North knocked on the door, calling Jack's name, asking him to open up, though he knew he wouldn't be able to hear his words. As there were no response, Bunny opened a tunnel and jumped in, only to seconds later opening the door, causing a wondering expression to show on North's face, as he had not expected the door to be unblocked at all.

"Not now, mates," Bunny said, preventing his fellow guardians to head on inside. "He's asleep." He gestured towards the bed, where a duvet was rolled around a thin figure, which peacefully slept, unknowing of the intruders in the room. "Seems like yer plan is for tomorrow, yea?"

The Guardian of Wonder sighed in disappointment; he had been so excited about getting to the plan, that he hadn't thought about what time it was – he hadn't even realized that it was already dark outside, and therefore hadn't thought of the possibility of Jack being asleep. "Tomorrow then," he said before he turned towards Tooth and Sandy. "You two wanting to go back to work or you want to wait? I guess twelve hours will do to make sure Jack is awake, no?"

Sandy and Tooth looked past Bunny, to the sleeping form in the bed, before they gave their answers.

"I'm staying," Tooth said with shrug, before explaining that Baby Tooth and a few of the other mini fairies were in charge when she wasn't around. In truth she was too worried about what North had in store for Jack to simply leave him alone, while this man had those crazy plans in his head.

Sandy, on the other hand, made some figures over his head telling he would come back as the children needed his dreams. With that being said, he sent a tendril of dream sand towards Jack to ensure he got a good dream, before the old shooting star headed out of a window, waving goodbye to his friends in the process.

Bunny closed the door behind him, and the three guardians headed back to the globe room, this time with a flying Tooth, where they would wait for Jack to wake up, and hopefully get some sleep too, before the next day.

* * *

**Sooo, I kind of wanted North to start his "big plan" in this one, but then thought _'Nah, Jack needs a break and something nice, so I'll give him something enjoyable before hell breaks loose to him_~' I guess you could say it's sort of a filler, but what the hell, even the big Frosty needs to relax, considering his situation and all - we can't have his brain turns into scrambled eggs, right? **** ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌**


	11. Replica

**You have no idea how hard it was to write this chapter, since all my**** notes on North's plans got lost somewhere in my brain, so when I had to write this chapter I was completely blank. All my brilliance was gone. You will have to have this lot less genius version of what I had planned for you guys, sorry 'bout that; in all its simplicity ****meaning the outcome was bad... But I wanted to at least give you guys another chapter before school starts tomorrow. Now if you'll excuse me; I think I'll just go die in shame in a corner now.**

* * *

Jack lounged in one of the armchairs in his room, playing some game on his phone. He had wakened an hour ago, and, since he couldn't get out without North's help, then he had simply chosen to pass time with playing some app he had forgotten he had ever downloaded. It was some simple game, where you controlled a small running man around in a temple, away from a monster, while you collected coins. In all its simplicity, it was rather amusing not to mention provided the teen with a lot of fun, as he tried to beat his new high score. It was basically everything he could use his phone to, to play games. There was no connection so he could neither go on the internet nor call for help, and even if he _could_ call anyone, then what was he supposed to say? That he had been kidnapped by a fairy, a Pooka, a Russian and a sandman? That he was being kept locked away in some palace filled with monsters, in a white wasteland, located a place he didn't even know where was? No one would believe him, and he knew that. If he ever got home, he knew he would get a lot of questions about where he had been, and why he had just disappeared from the face of Earth for who knows how long he would end up being stuck in this place.

He had to figure an excuse, he knew that, but the possibilities of him returning were slim, so he didn't even bother to try to make one up. Instead he lead his thoughts elsewhere to the phone in his hands, playing the game, trying to pull him-self away from reality of his current situation. He had come accustomed to it all, and it was weird to him, but he didn't feel as fearful as he had in the beginning, where he had freaked like a scared little bunny. It was actually nice not to be as afraid as the first two or three days.

He was still scared though, mostly when the kidnappers were around, but as long as he was alone he was actually fine, surprisingly enough. Not that he liked being alone, he hated it, but in this case it was more than welcome, besides; he had the wind to keep him company, even thought that might sound silly, though not today. Today he was on his own with no wind to keep him company, as it was locked out on the other side of the window, not allowed permission to enter, and that all because of one reason alone.

A large sneeze interrupted him in his game, followed by another, and then another again. He wiped his running nose in his sleeve, and frowned, as the small numbers on the screen showed he had only been few points from beating his own high score. He tugged the duvet closer to his body to keep warmth as he pressed retry, and began to play the next round, determined on getting a higher score this time.

Jackson Overland Frost, the boy who loved the cold, the snow and everything related to winter, had, ironically enough, caught a cold, just as he had feared would happen the day before.

It wasn't the first time he had gotten one, obviously, or that it had come as a surprise considering the amount of time he had spent sitting in an open window with an icy wind, but he hated it none the less. It made him feel weak and useless, even if it was just a small one, though he wasn't so sure with this one, he didn't let it affect him – he would normally just have ignored it until it would show it would go away by itself, if it didn't, then he was used to take care of it himself if it was bad enough. He lived on his own after all, so it was only expected. But considering his situation, then he wouldn't take the chance of actually growing too sick, so he had chosen to take care of himself today, which he normally only would have done _if_ he was too sick to pull off pranks or hide it behind a cheerful façade.

He snorted loudly, and struggled to keep the small man away from obstacles as his concentration started to fly elsewhere; in the end he'd pause the game and turned his attention fully to the door, where he could swear he heard voices coming from behind it.

An annoyed sigh threatened to escape his lips but he kept it at bay, as he put the duvet back on the bed, before he headed to the window, trying to look a bit less sick than he felt. No matter who it was, then he didn't like people to think he needed caring or to be fussed about, besides then he was pretty positive that none of the kidnappers would even care if he actually fell sick, but that didn't mean he would let them see him looking as bad as he felt.

The room was too chilly for him without the duvet around him, but despite his condition, then he opened the window and let the way too cold wind inside. The only reasons why he did it, was because he felt like the wind protected him when he needed it to, and had done it since he came here. If he got too scared, he could at least rely on the wind to force them to leave, and he knew they would come in. The other reason was because he wanted to look as normal as possible no matter he would manage to pull that one off today. He knew that they knew he sat in the open window a lot, so why not do it again? He suppressed a sneeze as he sat down on the windowsill, already starting to shiver in the cold, though he tried to suppress that too, and the appearance of nausea.

In all honesty he had no idea why he didn't just let himself sit in the armchair, away from the cold. He guessed he was too uncaring about himself for his own good, as long as he stood out as cheerful enough or whatever he hoped to accomplish with this. The only thing he knew was that he didn't want to let them think something was wrong with him, because who knew what they would do then?

He bitterly regretted his decision, when the wind brought some snow with it inside, causing him to sneeze loudly, and once again he wiped his nose in his sleeve. He knew it was gross, but what could he do? He had no handkerchief or paper towels.

Jack pulled out his still-paused game, and began to concentrate on that, to try to focus on something else than nausea, before the door began to open, not even caring to look at whoever entered. There were only five possibilities after all; the sandman, the Russian, the Pooka, the fairy, and the monster. Whoever it was, it was someone who walked very silently, because he couldn't hear anyone come any closer. Finally, after his third game and no one had said anything, he looked away from the screen, preparing to meet whatever monstrosity had appeared in his room. "Nice to see you care much about your prisoner to visit, really I'm flattered, and -" he trailed off, as he saw… no one.

A frown appeared on his face, before he rubbed his eyes and looked around again. The door had opened only a few minutes ago, but why were there no one who had come in then? He had even been certain there had been voices behind the door, though it had been hard to hear clearly what they were saying.

Confused, he left the windowsill, tugging his phone back in his pocket, and looked around the room to make sure whoever it was weren't hiding in there, but there were no one to be seen, not even under the bed. Why would someone just open the door, if they hadn't intended to go inside?

He walked to the door opening and looked down the hallway, but there were no one to be seen. "North?" Jack hesitantly called, unsure if he actually wanted to talk to anybody. "Bunny, are you there?" There were no answer, and no one appeared. He didn't know if he should be glad or worried about that. Probably both. "Geez at least answer me," he mumbled, and was about to close the door, when suddenly a large hand landed on his shoulder, making him jump and yelp in surprise, before he fell out into the hallway.

As he lay on the floor, getting over the sudden shock, he saw North stand in the doorway, looking confused for a moment, before he laughed over Jack's reaction. "Hah! Jack, you're fun as ever!" He friendly extended a hand towards Jack, gesturing for him to take it to pull him up, but the gesture just made Jack freeze, and stare at the hand as if it had grown an extra thumb.

North's smile faded when he realized Jack wasn't going to take it, worried that he might have startled the boy too much by choosing to surprise him like this. Maybe he really should have just appeared in the doorway like Tooth had warned him to do? Bah, what was he thinking? Jack could handle it; he just had to get over his shock that was all.

Jack stared at North with wide eyes, afraid of what he wanted. He had just appeared out of nowhere, like some ninja! He was impressed though, considering his size and all; someone his size shouldn't be able to sneak up on people like that without being noticed, and Jack had been so sure he had checked the whole room, and seen no sign of anyone at all, and there were no way he could have missed that man. Just how in the world had that large man managed to sneak up on him like that? It wasn't supposed to be possible. Unless his cold affected his senses, so he actually _had_ missed him?

"Jack, it is nice to see you," North said gently, as Jack finally started to get to his feet, his eyes never leaving the Cossack in the progress.

The teen snorted as his nose began to run again, not sure if he could say the same thing to him. "Yeah it nice to see you too, why do I own the pleasure of your sudden visit?"

A wide smile crossed North's lips, not seeing the heavy sarcasm in Jack's words, which should have told him that he most certainly did _not_ approve of this. "I have special surprise for you, my friend."

"Why? What is it?"

"You'll see, no? Just come, unless you want to spend rest of day in room?" He gestured Jack to follow him as he began to walk down the hallway.

Jack hesitated, looking at the door in front of him where the wind was still blowing. He didn't want to spend more time locked up in there. He was tired of being stuck there, that was a fact, yet he was unsure if it was such a good idea to actually follow the Cossack, considering he was delusional; he had said all sorts of things about Jack being a spirit after all, and if that wasn't enough to make people worry for their wellbeing around him, then he didn't know what was. Besides, he _had_ kidnapped him. Despite that, sadly enough, then he couldn't deny that a surprise was something he always saw welcome, though he had his doubts about it, considering who it would be from, and what could possibly beat what he saw last night?

He only hesitantly followed North though, keeping a safe distance to the large man, as they went through the hallway. It wasn't like he didn't want to try and use this opportunity to get away and try to escape; it was more that he didn't even have a clue of how to get out at all. All he knew was that this place was huge, as far as he had been able to see from his window, and he had figured that what he had been able to see wasn't even half of the whole places outside. This was a huge palace after all, and considering that he still had a hard time finding his way in school, then this place would be like a maze to him – just the daily trip to the bathroom was too complicated for him to remember on his own. And with a cold to dull his senses, then he didn't really think he had the energy to pull of much else than simply do as he was told, meaning that escapes and fake cheerful attitudes were out of the question for the day. He would still try to pull off his happy-go-lucky self though.

"So, what's this surprise?" Jack asked, not helping but grin in excitement despite his doubts about it. Even if he had a cold, and therefore felt exhausted, then he still somehow managed to get excited.

North simply laughed at the teen, happy to see that there still was a bit of the old Jack inside him. "You'll see when we get there, be patient."

Jack pouted, but didn't get less excited. Geez, why did he have to love surprises this much? He was supposed to be wary of what was happening around him, be afraid of the big man, and not act like some child on Christmas. What was wrong with him, besides being sick? It was almost as if he unconsciously trusted this man.

Finally they entered a big room, which Jack recognized from when he first had come to this place through the tunnel. A gigantic globe stood in an open area, with thousands, if not millions, of small lights covering the lands. He somehow knew they were meant to mean something, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was supposed to be, like some forgotten memory or something. Just like how he had it with the rest of everything around him. He should know where this place was, and what it was, who the kidnappers were, but he didn't. He didn't think too much about it though, because where was the fun in that?

"Do I get to see it now?" Jack asked impatiently, as he followed North to a large table, but stopped in his tracks as he saw who were occupying some of the chairs around it – the fairy, the sandman and the kangaroo.

Realizing their presence Jack flinched, and took a few steps backwards, starting to be afraid of the three supernatural beings, but before he could get very far, North somewhat comfortingly grabbed his shoulder, and pulled him with him to the opposite side of the table, away from the others. "Now Jackson, no try to escape, else you won't get surprise!" North smiled widely before finding a toy train, and placed it on the table, gesturing for Jack to come over, and he did, though he walked a big circle away from mostly Tooth and Sandy. He didn't really have that much against Bunny though, but he still had to figure how the two others were in person before he really could judge them, he figured.

Jack looked skeptical at the toy train once he reached North, unsure of why that would be considered a surprise, but it was impressive none the less. Not to mention that the excitement from earlier disappeared. "Is that an ice toy train?"

"Dah, it is, but, it is more than that," North said, gaining a confused look from the teen, as he did not see what was so special about an ice-sculptured train; it had quite a lot of detail, and it almost looked real, but else he couldn't see what else made it special. It didn't take more than a few seconds before it dawned to him what North meant was special about it more than that.

Brown eyes widened as he stared at the train which shouldn't have been able to move but did so anyway, it even whistled as its wheels spun around, making it drive down the table without as much as a battery inside. A wide grin appeared on the boy's lips followed by a laugh of wonder. But as impressive as it was, the laughter and smile faded, when the train took off into the air, and flew around. He starred with disbelief as the flying toy train headed towards him.

Both North and Sandy laughed at that sight of Jack spinning around to follow the train's movements.

"North, I think you should make that one -," Tooth began concerned when Jack had stared to seem a little dizzy of circling around this much, but she had barely finished, before a shattering sound cut her off, making her eyes widen, just like North's who looked from the shattered train prototype to Jack, who had just caused the death of his train. North was starring in disbelief of what Jack had just accidently done; hitting the prototype out of the air and crushed it to the floor because it got too close.

Bunny grinned at that, seeing the shock in North's face over the ruined prototype. "Didn't go as planned, now did it?"

North simply sighed and eventually pulled him-self together. It wasn't like he had to use that prototype anymore, it was two or three years old by now, but it had still taken a lot of time to make it, and it was more that which made him a bit sad that he had lost it.

"Sorry about that," Jack said with an apologetic grin, scratching his neck, and looked at North, fearing the man's reaction since he barely knew anything about him.

To his surprise, North waved it off like it was nothing, before he turned to a large package which lay on the table, and gave it to Jack. "It doesn't matter, it wasn't important - it was just a try out to see ... but it wasn't your surprise either. _This_ is your surprise." He patted the package in Jacks arms. The boy just stood speechless, unsure of what to do now. He had honestly thought that the ice train was supposed to be the surprise, not that he was going to get a gift. "Well, pack it up!"

Jack looked from the long package to North and back again, for the moment forgetting about the destroyed toy train, though he only hesitantly began to open it, not really used to get gifts, and revealed a … staff of some sort? He stood for a while, dumbfounded, and just stared at it, as if uncertain of what to do. It seemed strangely familiar, but why in the world would they give this to him? He barely even had the faintest idea of what it was.

"Surprise!" North exclaimed with a way too happy smile. Bunny rolled his eyes, seemingly not thinking it was such a good surprise for some reason, though both Tooth and Sandy were looking expectantly at Jack's reaction to the gift. The toy train incident already forgotten.

"So, this is a staff of some sort?" Jack asked, swinging the staff almost as if it fell naturally to him. It felt somehow familiar in his hands, felt comforting, though he couldn't deny that it felt as if there was something missing, something he couldn't really put his finger on, and it felt wrong too. It took him a minute before he finally recognized the shepherd's hook as the staff his dream-self always ran around with to cause blizzards and snow days. His Jack Frost self. Were they mocking him with the dreams he had each night since coming here? North had said that he was Jack Frost, but to seriously give him a staff just like the one in his dreams was a bit strange and creepy, not to mention unsettling. How could they possibly know so much about what he dreamed? It was even an exact replica of it; it was like they had seen what he had dreamed or something. "It doesn't feel right," he muttered under his breath, so only Bunny was able to hear it, but he made no reply to what Jack had just said.

"Do you like it?" Tooth asked expectantly, twirling her hands around each other. She seemed nervous and was careful in her voice, to not startle the boy. She had had a long, _long_ talk with North about trying to at least take it easy in the beginning, when they were going to introduce Jack to magic, and it had taken hours to make him give in to it, meaning that the long discussion was a success. It had first ended when they both had been standing outside of Jack's room earlier this day, just before North had surprised the teen. Overall Tooth was happy for the outcome. At least for now. She knew this day would be hard for the boy, the more time went by. And worst of all with what North had talked her into doing.

Jack hesitated and stopped swinging the staff around in the air, looking at it with a frown on his face, his happier expression gone. He didn't like that they were looking at him like that, he hated being the center of attention, believe it or not. He liked pranking people, make them have fun by drawing the attention towards them, but he had never liked to be the one everyone had their attention on. That was also why he made sure he never got caught in his pranking; to make sure that all the focus would go elsewhere. How ironic it was, that he hungered for attention yet hated it when he got it. And here he was, in some frozen wasteland with four magical being, giving him attention, when he didn't want it and wasn't able to enjoy it. "I – It's nice, but it doesn't feel right. It feels _wrong_."

The four guardians looked at each other with unease. Something was clearly going through their minds.

"It's not the real deal, Jack, but you will have to wait until we find the real one."

Jack looked at North, the frown not leaving, for a short moment he almost felt like he knew what North meant by it. "That explains it... Listen North, I appreciate the thought, but -"

"No but," North cut him off and waved his hand. "It is yours, until we get real one back, when you remember."

A sigh escaped Jack, but ended up in a suppressed coughing, which made the guardians look at him with slight worried looks, but he just pretended it was nothing, as he didn't like them to worry. "You gotta be kidding me. Don't tell me this is all about the whole _'you're Jack Frost'-_thing, and this staff is some way of making me believe you." He didn't need an answer, as their expressions were enough for him. "I should have thought as much. North, listen, before you say anything, then let me ask you a question; why are you so certain that I'm _Jack Frost_? Could it ever have occurred to you that I might be just a normal teen, who's losing his job because of -" He trailed off, as some movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention.

He turned to watch what it was, only to find a small creature dressed in a red hat with a bell on top, and with pointy ears sticking out, walking by while chewing on a sugar cane.

The sight of the elf, made Jack stare at it with a mix of caution and wonder, as he had never seen such one before. He didn't even know whether it was dangerous or not, yet he couldn't help but suddenly grin and pull it up by the tip of its hat and stare at it with childish amazement, while it just stared back with confused eyes, trying to make him let go. Jack had completely forgotten about the guardians, who were watching him with confusion and slight entertainment as they saw a piece of their old Jack, and that he was supposed to be cautious of it – strangely enough then the second he held the replica of the staff from his dreams, then he hadn't been as afraid as before, like it somehow comforted him. Just like the wind did. About that, then wasn't it a bit too warm in here? Like _really_ warm? _Sickening_ warm?

"Yer alright, Frostbite? Ya seem a bit _green_," Bunny stated, but he didn't exactly get an answer from the teen, which still stood with the elf dangling in one hand, and the staff in another, looking at the elf with a frown on his face, like he was thinking too much about something. He had even started to sway a bit. That was, until Jack suddenly went to the window, but just as he was about to open it, Bunny pulled him away, looking at him with a frown. "Just what do ya think yer doin', mate?"

The sudden realization of being in physical contact with the kangaroo, made Jack yelp in surprise, and whack Bunny's face with the replica staff, to make him let go of him. Maybe the feeling of a staff in his hands didn't calm him as much as he first had anticipated? However, he didn't feel like he really could think clear enough to actually _be_ afraid for more than a few seconds today. Stupid nausea. He still tried to keep his cool though, pretended to be all fine while he fought the sickening feeling in his stomach. "I was simply opening the window to throw myself outside," Jack deadpanned, fighting his will to run back to his room. He really didn't feel good.

Well, at least it had been Bunny and not that fairy or sandman, who had interrupted him in opening the window. Those two could _fly_; besides, then Tooth seemed too motherly, just by looking at her and it creeped him out, while as Sandy seemed just downright creepy with staying silent like that, observing like a predator or whatever he was supposed to be, while playing that act. "Come on. Don't you think it's too warm in here? It's like, what, thirty-five Celsius or something."

The guardians looked at each other for a few second, just as Jack rolled his eyes and opened the window, letting the wind come inside to cool him down, but that only resulted in him starting to sneeze and freeze. What in the world was the matter with him today? First he was casual around these people, well as casual as you could get while being angst of what they could possibly decide to do. Then he felt too hot and now too cold, just by standing in the cold wind for about two seconds? He was shivering now, but none the less, he was thankful that it at least seemed to ease his nausea, and -

- the next thing he knew, he had let go of both staff and elf, and found him-self vomiting out the window.

He didn't notice the disgusted and concerned looks he got, nor did he realize Tooth had walked up to him, still determined on not flying in his presence, and put a hand on his forehead, only to pull it back as if she had been burnt. A worried expression spread across her face, as she took in Jack's pale, yet heated features. "J - Jack you - you have a fever!"

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**Sorry to cut it in this way, but couldn't figure a better way to do it so. :|**

**Review?**


	12. Gentle Beast

**PEWDIEPIE HAS BECOME THE #1 MOST SUBSCRIBED YOUTUBER ON YOUTUBE! *:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:* **

_**NOTE:**_

_You know what I love? Having confidence issues. It's so nice to be confident and outgoing on the outside, and insecure as hell on the inside.. Oh, and that was sarcasm in case you're wondering… So what I'm trying to say is that I'm taking a break from FF after this chapter, since my anxiety has returned, and until I can get that under control, I'm not going to post anything (I already did post #13 byt then I got an anxiety attack shortly after and deleted it (as I realised it was bad and not what I wanted to do with the story), I then posted an Author's Note, deleted that as well, and so on, and now I've written it here... Sorry if it's confusing with mails and such, I'm just really a mess right now, and has no idea what to do with myself anymore). I'm going to take a break, try to get my mental health in order again, and hopefully be back with something that'll be worth the wait. I know it sucks, but if I post anything while my confidence is at its lowest, it'll only be a bad read for you guys, and my anxiety won't get away, as I won't be able to do anything else than fear and worry what you guys think about the said chapter, and since I don't want to let you guys down with a bad read, it's better if I go away for a while._

_You are welcome to check out my profile for updates on the stories!_

_I'll see you when I return somewhen in the future. Soon, hopefully!_

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**T**he grotesque sounds of Jack emptying his stomach out the window, sounded in the globe room.

Tooth stared shockingly at the teen, before she with unease was circling her hand on his shaking back, trying to ease his pain in some sort. She felt so bad for her poor snowflake, and she just wanted to cuddle him in her arms, but with the state he was in right now, she feared for his reaction if she did so, and if it would cause him more pain. Neither of the guardians had ever had to deal with human weakness' before, considering that the closet they had ever been to this sort of thing, was back when they had lost almost all their believers, and most certainly never had to deal with sickness' before; none of them ever fell sick, not even as much as a small cold, so experiencing other have it was alien to them.

After all, only Tooth and North had been humans before they were chosen, but that was almost a whole millennium ago for both of them, they honestly had lost count. They both barely even remembered anything about what to do in these cases nor what identified an illness. Basically all they remembered was that if your body temperature was too hot, it meant that you had a fever.

This was one of the downsides of being a spirit, in this case; you didn't need medical knowledge since you never went sick, so when you finally needed the knowledge it wasn't there, despite your many hundreds, if not thousands, of years on Earth.

As Jack was continuing to throw up undigested food, both Tooth and North were storming their brains to try to remember what to do when someone fell sick, while Sandy looked concerned at their youngest member, and Bunny looked disgusted; the Pooka's hearing was far better than any of the other guardian's after all, and despite his try to protect his hearing from the sickening sounds, he could still hear how the contents from Jack's stomach forced its way up the boy's throat.

"Don't ya have a book or somethin' in yer library 'bout what ta do with 'im?" Bunny protested in worry, when Jack finally fell to his knees, clinging weakly to the window sill to hold him up, not able to empty his stomach any further. His whole body trembled, and cold sweat had started to show on his pale and heated face, his breath was uneven, while pathetic painful moans escaped the boy's lips, clearly signalizing that he felt utterly horrible.

North looked from Jack to Bunny and back again before nodding thoughtfully. It wasn't likely that there would be some books with medical information somewhere in there, but if there were they would probably be in the unused section, since none who resided on the pole ever fell sick. "Tooth, you take care of Jack while we go?"

The worried Fairy Queen looked up, slight confusion in her features, but she nodded, and returned to what she had done before; trying to comfort the boy in his misery, while North and Bunny took off to the library.

As the two of them walked off to the library, Tooth and Sandy sat comforting by their youngest member's side, hoping for him to be okay.

Just seeing their mischievous little winter spirit like this was almost worse than having seen him being terrified for the yeti a few days ago. He looked so weak and pathetic at the moment, and it just seemed so weird on him, that it was like he was a complete different person. He sort of was at the moment, but that was not the point.

Tooth smiled as Sandy made a dolphin of his sand and sent it to jump around in front of Jack, to try make him ease up a bit, but it seemed as if danced for unseeing eyes, as he barely even reacted to it; his eyes followed the dolphin for about two seconds, before he just went back into staring at nothing, though they lazily went to Tooth as she began to talk; "Jack, sweetie, do you – do you want to lie on the couch or something? We could bring you back to your room if you want it? What do you say?"

A frown appeared on the boy's face as he took in her words, seemingly not able to make any sense of her words as fast as if he had been good to go. It took him a while before he reacted by pushing himself up to stand with shaking knees. He grabbed his head with one hand, when the blood rushed to his head, and grabbed the window for support with the other, while he waited for the blood rush to disappear, before he began to walk away from the window, needing to support himself to different objects in the progress. He hated this. He felt so pathetic, and he should have seen this coming; he had felt it like he just jumped head first directly into the sea of sickness, since his state had worsened this fast, and now he had unnecessary worry to think about too. This was not his day.

He didn't look back to Tooth and Sandy, who watched him with concerned eyes. His lack of reactions worried them. "Where are you going?" Tooth asked, while Sandy made a question mark above his head, and walked to his side. She doubted that he would even have said anything if she had been flying, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

The teen looked at her for a short moment, not making much of a reaction, before he continued his walk to where the replica staff lay on the floor, and picked it up with an unreadable expression. He tugged it to his chest in support and closed his eyes in dismay, as thoughts and pictures flew through his head.

He'd wish… he'd wish he had the real one and not some copy. Not that he wanted to believe what North had said, but still; holding the copy made him long for the real one, so it could fill the gap in his chest, now that he was aware that the real one was missing.

A sigh escaped him, before he turned to look at the two worried guardians, an apologetic grin on his lips and a glad expression on his face. It came so out of the blue that it couldn't help but stun the two. "I'm sorry to worry you two," Jack said, his glad expression not wavering for one second, though even he knew it seemed rather forced, but it was the best he could plaster at the moment, "I'm fine, really, just needed to get some stuff out of the system, you know. Sorry you had to witness that by the way, must've been disgusting for you. Can I get something to drink? I sort of have this _really _bad taste in my mouth."

"You're sure you're okay?" Tooth asked skeptically, but Jack had already seemed to grow distant once he answered.

"Y – Yeah, just need some rest, that's all." He began walking away, supporting heavily to the staff; it was clearly giving away his smile was just a show, to not make them worry for him.

He was halfway towards the door, when Tooth flew to his side again, just as he was about to stumble over his feet. It wasn't surprising that he had tried to not make them worry about him; he had done the same thing as a spirit. Always the loner, always the one who thought he had to do everything by himself, always thinking he didn't need anyone to worry about him, even after they had taken him into their little family. It wasn't surprising really, considering his three-hundred years on his own, but it still managed to annoy the guardians oftener that you would think. They were his family now, meaning he shouldn't have to do everything on his own anymore. Sure, he had still been trying to put his trust in them, and adjust to his new life with being believed in and acknowledged, but still.

"It's out of the question that you walk around on your own! You're in no position to do that before you get better –"

"I'm fine," Jack suddenly exclaimed, and walked out of Tooth's reach. His eyes shone with dismay and discomfort, making it clear that he didn't like to be fussed about, especially not by someone he barely even knew. He might be sick, but that didn't mean that he was good for nothing at the moment. Okay, that was a lie, but he was still able to take care of himself, no matter how much they wanted to take care of him or whatever they wanted to do now that they knew he was in a bad condition. "I'll just head back to my room, so leave me alone, okay?"

Tooth looked speechless for a moment, but then she suddenly took the stubborn teen's arm before he was able to do more than take a few steps, and pushed him into the couch. Jack looked stunned at her as he lay there, while Tooth hovered in the air above him with arms crossed and an unbelievably furious expression on her face, clearly not allowing him to be on his own in this state. "You are not going anywhere without us, young man. You are not alone anymore, so you don't have to hide yourself and your problems from us. Whether you remember or not, then we are your family, and families stick together, protects each other and cares for one another when they're sick, so you better do as being told, until North and Bunny comes back so we can patch you up, so you at least don't have a fever anymore! No objections! So let your sorry butt stay put in that couch, until I give you permission to go elsewhere, and for once listen to us without freaking out and let us care for you!"

Both of the male guardians looked stunned at Tooth; neither of them had expected her to start acting like this, and what she had said had made them both speechless, but most of all Jack, who now nearly feared for his life under this fairy's furious gaze. He looked at Tooth for a long while, becoming almost just as pale as he had been when he had been a spirit. He had a hard time comprehending how this woman, who usually held such gentle features on her face, could hold such a furious look. He had been absolutely right in fearing her; he would even admit that he was more scared for her right now, than he had been of the furry monster, a yeti if he remembered what North had said correctly.

"Have I made myself clear?" Tooth asked in a low voice, so strict it could almost cut through anything. In response Jack nodded, not daring to take his eyes off of her. The fairy's features softened, happy to see that he understood and wouldn't object, though she didn't understand why he looked like he had seen a ghost all of the sudden. Even though she smiled to him, as gentle as ever, it only seemed to make him more afraid. "Good, then there's no misunderstandings! Now, stay here, while I get you your duvet," she said in her gentle voice again, before she left the two boys to themselves.

It took whole three minutes for Sandy and Jack to be able to do anything again, after what Tooth just had done; even Sandy had never seen that side of her before, and he completely understood how Jack must've felt being directly under her gaze, especially since he already were frightened for all of them to begin with.

Jack looked at the small man beside him, their gazes locking. He didn't fear Sandy anymore as he seemed like a kitten compared to Tooth, when she had set her mind on treating him like some kid. "That woman is seriously scary." Jack stated, and was met with a slow nod from Sandy, totally agreeing with the teen on that.

Tooth's act had even left Sandy wonder if the occupation as the boogeyman had been given out to the wrong person.

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Books were scattered all over the floor in the library, as the two holiday spirits were searching for a book to help their youngest member. It had proved not to be an easy job, considering the amount of books in the tall bookcases, and even when they had gotten to the more old and unused part of the library, it just seemed like there were nothing which could help them out. They had been searching for about two hours by now, but even with help from a few yetis, it just seemed like the search was going to end with no result. Not really something any of them wanted to accept, since they had no idea of how to deal with this situation they now found themselves in.

Bunny ran a frustrated hand over his ear, as he continued to read the many titles of the countless books. There were simply books about every subject right from how to pamper a baby to astrophysics, and children's books to erotica – Bunny didn't even want to know why there seemed to be a little too many books with that genre. Who would have thought that that jolly old man was into that kind of stuff?

Just the mere thought gave Bunny the creeps, but he pushed it aside; now was not the time to wonder about things like that, when they had an ill guardian in the globe room, with an overprotective Tooth. He sure didn't hope that she got way too protective against that kid. She was outright scary when she got too into her too motherly mode. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to leave her and Jack together, although Sandy was there to knock her out if it was needed, but he could just imagine how bad it could turn out if she managed to scare Sandy as well.

But nonetheless he was rather happy that he hadn't had to listen to Jack throwing up more than necessary. Just five minutes of listening to it had been enough for him to actually feel like he had to throw up himself.

"Ya found something?" Bunny called as he was flipping through the pages of an old herbal book which seemed like it could fall from each other just by looking at it. A few grunts from above and under, coming from the open area of the library where you could watch the other floors, told him that neither of the yetis had had any luck this far, while North yelled something in Russian, whatever it was he had said, then there were no doubts that it had contained a very colorful vocabulary over his frustration of not being able to find anything as well.

The Guardian of Hope tossed the book to the floor, when he found nothing of interest inside, and darted between the bookcases, looking at each and single one of the titles, his eyes feeling dull due to the constant reading of countless of books, considering he normally rarely read anything at all. Some of the books in this place didn't even look like they had ever even been opened, while others seemed like they had been read countless of times over the years.

North should really get another hobby than collect books, Bunny told himself as he passed bookcase row fifty-seven, and as if that old Cossack didn't have enough books to all eternity already stored into the cases, then Bunny spotted a whole stack of boxes, which he consumed were filled with even more books, covered by a lot of sheets at the far end wall, where thick handwritten letters clearly told that they shouldn't be touched. Just the mere thought of a whole stack of who knows how many boxes of books were inside being added to the list of books to go through was enough to mentally exhaust the ancient warrior, as he cursed his old friend for having such an obsession with literature. Honestly weren't two rows of bookcases enough? Did he really have to have a whole exclusive building to house them all, with hundreds of rows of books, and at least five floors? Either way, he jumped to the stack - or rather mountain - removed one of the sheets, opened the box with an annoyed frown, only to find- "Bloody hell!" Bunny exclaimed in surprised as hie eyes met the contents of the box. Without as much as a second thought, he quickly closed the box and covered it with the sheet it had originally been covered in, trying to get some of the very wrong pictures out of his head. If only the kids knew what their dear Santa had stored away in his library...

The old warrior forced himself into only focusing on Jack being ill, to not let the wrong pictures in his head get the best of him, as he was trying to remember if there were anything that could cure sick mortals with Pooka methods. The only problem was that the more he thought about them, the more hopeless did they seem towards humans. They simply didn't seem human-friendly at all, considering some of the herbals needed to, for example a stew Bunny's mother used to give him when he was sick as a kit, was poisonous towards humans. Such a shame really, since the methods had proven useful towards his now distinct race.

The loud crashing sound of a bookcase making contact to the ground, sounded from the floor under where Bunny was located, made him snap towards the edge of the floor and stare towards where the noise had come from. When he couldn't see it, he swung himself over the fence, and stood by the tipped bookcase in a matter of seconds, where a yeti were fighting its way out of the mass of books covering its body, while it angrily grunted something in yetish. Though the situation wasn't something to laugh about, the scene was still able to make Bunny snicker in amusement over the yeti's expression.

He still helped the yeti by pulling books away to help it get free, with assistance from two other yetis, but when they were halfway through, a book caught Bunny's eyes and a wide grin showed on his face, as he saw the title of the book; '_Nutrition and Diagnosis-Related Care'_.

To put it short, then their search for the book was over, now all they had to do was help dig the yeti out, and they could get back to their ill friend.

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Jack was a little uneasy with being around Tooth. That was putting it mildly, he was very, _very_ uneasy and nervous around the fairy, who kept insisting that he stayed on the couch with his duvet around him, in front of the burning fire. It was way too hot for him, but he didn't say a word about it to her about it, since she scared the crap out of him.

He didn't even say a word when his cold sweat had started to become actual sweat caused by the heat from the fire, and it made him feel dizzy; he just sat on the couch like a well-behaving child, while Tooth sat beside him, not understanding why he had started to sweat more than before, and worried if she had done something wrong, but when she asked about it, he simply shook his quickly head, saying everything was okay and that she shouldn't worry too much about it. It was just a cold after all, so it was nothing to be worried about. He even tried to hint that he just wanted to be alone, but seeing how her eyes hardened, he quieted and dropped the subject.

Tooth wasn't satisfied by the answers she got out of Jack, but he had already gotten too distracted by a dream-sand dolphin from Sandy, to even listen further to what she had to say or ask him about. She didn't understand why Jack all of the sudden had taken such a likening to Sandy and even had begun to talk to him, when he still was really hostile towards her, as if she had kicked him like a puppy, but she guessed it at least was a good thing that he had begun to open up to them. She'd just wish that he had started to do so to her as well.

From time to time Jack would glance towards her with cautious eyes as if fearing if she was up to something, but every time their eyes met, Jack always looked away rather frightened and began to nervously tell all sorts of jokes or whatever to Sandy, literally making the small man roll on the floor with silent laughter, while Jack felt like he might start to melt and only felt worse and worse. Amazingly enough, having thrown up had made him feel a bit better, but that had only been for a short while – now he felt worse than ever, but he hid it rather well, if he should say so him-self.

At some point Tooth, for some reason, got this need to check on Jack's teeth when she realized he hadn't brushed them all day, not even after he had thrown up which could cause damage to his teeth, even if he had gotten something to drink to get the bad taste out of his mouth, and that choise of action had sent both Jack and Tooth in a wild run around the globe room, where Jack tried to keep her away from his mouth. He even - for some reason - called Sandy for help, and the small man flew to the boys aid, happy to be of help to him, and lifted the teen up into the air, where Jack now was holding on to Sandy while they both fled from Tooth in a wild hunt, not taking in consideration that Jack was sick, and that the flight only made him more nauseous than he already felt, and yet he actually had too much fun to want to take his own condition in mind.

It sure was a sight for both Bunny and North when they came back with the medical book in hand, and it was certainly not a development with Jack that they had seen coming this soon; especially not Jack clinging on to Sandy in the chase, while cheering for him to go faster to get away from Tooth. Well at least until Jack's grip accidently slipped from his hold on Sandy, and he landed headfirst in one of the large armchairs and was knocked out.

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**I'll let it be up to the individual, to imagine what the boxes in the library contained~**


	13. Help from Within

**(School is a living hell, just saying...)**

**I'm back, sort of, and I've made a chapter for you, sort of…**

**Soo, I'm really depressed for the time being, don't know why, might be due to the anniversary, idk... anyway, I'm out of practise with writing, due to the break, so I have no idea how good this is, probably not so good, especially the ending, but I came up with something for you guys, and the eventual errors will be corrected later. I just want to post something, like right now… But my mental state isn't all good just yet, so it's a miracle I'm actually doing this, this soon... x_x**

**_Note:_ **_Jack is still afraid of the guardians, I changed that from the last chapter, thought it was a bit too quickly for him to stop being it, and the hit in his head made him a bit woozy which explains why he's so calm and such in this one.._

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The Guardians were all looking with cautious and nervous expressions towards their youngest member, as he sat in the armchair by the fire place and watched the fire with a blank expression. He hadn't said anything since he had woken up from his knock out, other than stating that he felt woozy when North had asked how he felt. He was sneezing from time to time, but that was about it.

It was unsettling for them, as they worried for his health and whether or not the hit had done some damage to his young mind. It didn't help that he seemed to not really react to anything they did anymore nor answer any of their questions, other than the one North had asked. It probably still was possible that he was still getting over the shock of finding himself up-side-down in an armchair, like if he had been tossed there like a ragdoll, but shouldn't he at least have acted at least a little bit frightened or confused when waking up, if that was the case? He hadn't even reacted when they had put bandage around his neck, in case it had taken damage from the fall, nor said anything when they had given him some painkillers for the eventual pain (Bunny had been basically emptying some hospital's supply room to get the things to fix Jack up, and there still lay a whole mountain of medical supplies on the floor where he had let them all fall once he got back). They hadn't really known what else to do to the youth, other than those two simple things, so they hoped it was good enough for him, though their anxiety for what had happened to Jack wouldn't settle down enough for them to be able to fully relax; he didn't act like himself after all, and he was still sick with a fever.

They were silently thankful that Manny hadn't been around to witness the child get hurt due to recklessness from their side; he had trusted the young Jack Frost to their care after all, and they knew that he probably would never forgive them if anything happened to him. After all then Jack was – magically - the son of both the Man in the Moon and Mother Nature, since the two of them were who brought him into the spirit world, making him like a prince amongst spirits, especially amongst the seasonal spirits and sprites. Thankfully enough then Jack didn't know about this secret which was being kept from him and everybody else in the spiritual world. If the information slipped it would put the boy in even more danger than any other spirit – just imagine the jealously other spirits would suffice, if they knew the Prince of the Spirit World, the son of Man in the Moon, the Winter Prince, and one of the most powerful seasonal spirits in existence, was also a guardian. It would cause huge hammock, and Jack wouldn't be able to be at peace if spirits knew. However, there was one title more which the unknowing boy possessed, which was all because of his spiritual mother's father. It was the one title the guardians had sworn to keep away from him as long as possible, to not make the boy start doing stupid decisions which could lead to complications, towards what had happened in the past, and to, also, make sure that he wouldn't suffer by the hands of other spirits more than he already had. But none the less, then Manny telling them about Jack's true identity, had caused them to get frightened by realizing just how much danger they had put him in by letting him fight Pitch, even if Manny himself had chosen Jack to that task in assisting them.

They watched as the still feverish Jack forced his gaze away from the fireplace and looked towards a dark corner of the globe room, his expression still blank, but his eyes filled with a slight hint of interest, though there were nothing to see other than shadows in the far corner. It didn't really spark their interest in what he was gazing at or found interesting, all they worried about was whether or not Jack had been seriously hurt.

Jack tilted his head a bit and parted his lips slightly, while he was studying something which the guardians couldn't see. He frowned and his gaze became rather confused as he listened to a whispering voice none of the guardians could hear.

"Ya seein' somethin' interestin'?" Bunny asked, knowing Jack probably wouldn't answer, due to his lack of general attention of what was going on around him; he hadn't even noticed the yeti which was running around in the room with snacks to them, despite that they couldn't really eat anything due to their worry and anxiety.

The youth completely ignored him, which wasn't surprising really, and continued to stare into the corner, whilst slowly beginning to nod his head as the whispering voice gave him an order to follow. Once again he forced himself to look away and stare into the fire. He sighed and closed his eyes with a thoughtful expression, before it became blank again when he reopened them and continued to stare.

Bunny turned to his fellow guardians with worry in his features, silently asking them what to do, though none of them had any idea, not even Tooth who was reading the medical book they had gotten their grip on, trying to find something which could help them into figure if something was wrong with him other than having a cold. It wasn't normal for a teen to be this spaced out, was it?

The fire was beginning to die out in the fireplace while time passed, and Jack continued to sit and watch it, clearly aware of the black tendril which was crawling up his leg, but didn't bother to really do anything about it, as he knew what it wanted. The moment he had been knocked out, something had stirred in the back of his head as a faded old memory, and resulted in that he now knew who the black sand belonged to, though he did not know whether to be afraid of it or no, but since the owner of it hadn't hurt him yet, as far as he knew, then he decided that he wasn't someone who needed to be feared; besides then the smoothing voice, who had just been whispering to him, had lead his attention away from the guardians, telling him that all he had to do was to ignore them and then they would leave him alone. Also then the hit he had gotten, when he had been knocked out, had made him rather absentminded and he didn't really care for anything at the moment.

As the black tendril found its way up his leg and torso and further all the way down his arm, it stopped once it reached his open palm, and presented him two small object not much bigger than pills, which he recognized as his belongings – the stink bombs - though there were something different about them; instead of only being filled with a dark liquid, then it was now accompanied by glittering gold in the mix. One had more black liquid than the other, while one had the opposite. With uneasy eyes he stared at the tendril, which now was retreating back to the corner from which it came. He followed it with his gaze until it disappeared in the shadows.

He knew what to do, the voice had told him as much as he needed to know, but he just didn't know how to do it. He was still sick and woozy after all, and it wasn't likely that he would be able to actually do what he had been told to do, yet he still wanted to do it, in order to get away from this place, and if trusting the shade was the way to go, then why not simply do it? Besides then as far as he had understood, then the outcome could be hilarious, and if there was one thing he liked then it was things which were fun.

However there was this voice in his head, besides the whispering voice, which told him that he shouldn't begin to trust something abnormal. In all honesty then he didn't, because if he did then he might as well begin to believe in the guardians and their explanations about him being Jack Frost, but he wouldn't skip his chance to escape now that the opportunity had been provided to him.

He glanced towards the guardians who were deep into a hushed conversation a bit away, guaranteed talking about him, since they each looked his way from time to time. He didn't care though, since he knew that if he did this the right way, then he wouldn't have to see them ever again.

With a small uneasy smile to settle down his nerves, he looked at the pill-looking objects in his hands, knowing that now was as good as any, mostly because that the whispering voice said so. He took a calming breath before the mischievous grin he usually held when he was up to no good showed on his lips.

"… if I may not use machine, then how are we going to get him back?" North asked, looking from one guardian to another hoping for them to give in. It was a part of his brilliant plan after all to pull Jack through all sorts of experiments with machines and spells in order for him to get his memories back, but none of the other guardians seemed to want to let him do any of that anymore. Especially not Tooth, whom he had made a deal with in order to bring back Jack's memories; she almost looked like she would burst with anger for him to have brought up his plan again.

"Are you crazy? Have you not just witnessed yourself what happened to Jack and his neck? Have you forgotten how he reacted to just a magical train? He crashed it, Nicholas, because he was frightened of it. Didn't you see his eyes when he did? He might have hid it behind an apologizing façade and a smile, but he was scared, it would have been obvious to you, if you only had taken the time to look him in the eyes, instead of focusing on your prototype." She looked North dead in the eye as she spoke; needing him to understand that now was not the time for him to try to do all sorts of experiments on the poor boy. "Besides then I think he has had enough magic for one day; first of all then he's sick, and secondly then he was _this_ close to possibly breaking his neck. Do you really want to expose Manny's child to more than he already has?"

Bunny and Sandy looked from Tooth to North, waiting for the jolly old man to answer her question. She had a point, they both knew that, and letting North do experiments on the Winter Prince probably wasn't the best of ideas.

The Cossack was looking stunned at the Tooth Fairy, taking in her words. Of course he did not want to hurt Manny's child; that would be like signing your own will, but he still needed to make Jack remember. He was sort of his adoptive father after all, so it was only natural for him to want his son back no matter what it would take.

"I can see what you're thinking North, but I will not let you do it, and I most certainly won't make him see his memories before he's ready for them."

"Why not?" North asked, turning frustrated of the obvious resistance against his so brilliant plan. It was rare for him to actually get mad at his friends, but since this was about Jack, then he couldn't help it.

"Do you have any idea what trauma it would cause him? He has a different life now, North, he's mortal and in his mind he has no memories which relates to anything in his memory box. Just think of his reaction when he figures that he was human for three-hundred years ago, and then died by drowning -" Her hands flew up to cover her mouth, as she realized what she had just told them. The one thing she had promised Jack never to tell anyone.

"_What_?"

Three pair of eyes was pointing towards Tooth, whose feathers ruffled due to her nervousness. None of them had heard of Jack having drowned when he was still human, they had just expected for him to have been chosen like they had, and been brought into this other life.

"Do ya mean frostbite _died_?" Bunny exclaimed, forgetting that Jack was able to hear them if they talked too loud.

Tooth looked at him with big eyes before she lowered her hands with a hopeless expression. "Of course he did," she whispered in a shaken voice. "Why else do you think he acts and behaves the way he does? Don't you remember how he acted when you tossed warm water on him, and it didn't freeze right away?"

The Easter Bunny frowned as he remembered about it. It had been one of the first meetings after Pitch's defeat, and Jack had as usual been pulling a prank on him, causing Bunny's fur to be full of glitter which had taken over a month to get all out. He had wanted to take revenge on that prank, and had ended up with him finding a bucket, and filling it with warm water before the sprite met up to the meeting - late as usual. The moment Jack had come flying in through the window, the revengeful Pooka had let all the water fall over the youth, taking him by such surprise that he had lost control of the wind and ended up falling to the floor with a loud _thump_. It had been hilarious, and caused a lot of laughter from the audience, and despite that Bunny had been laughing too, then he hadn't been able not to notice the look on Jack's face, once the youth had realized that he was covered in actual water instead of the usual simple frost. It had been a look of pure horror and fear, and the moment they had gotten eye contact Bunny could have sworn he had seen panicked tears, but Jack had been quick to hide it behind a laughing façade, tremblingly saying "you got me cottontail, now just wait 'till I get my hands on you next time". He had gotten to his feet, and with a quickened breath, stated that he had forgotten that he had an appointment with Jamie (despite it being in the middle of summer in Burgess and way too hot for him to find it comfortable), and then flown off not caring for ditching the guardians. Bunny hadn't done any pranks like that again, due to Jack's expression, when the youth had realized what had happened to him.

"Aqua-phobia," it wasn't a question, more of a statement, as Bunny first now realized why Jack had reacted like he had when he had gotten soaked into the skin back then. It explained so much about that kid's strange behavior around children on frozen ponds and lakes, and why he guarded them like a hawk until they all were safe and sound off of the frozen waters, and why he made sure the waters always were as good as frozen solid. It explained why he always sought into cover when it started to rain and he didn't have permission to cause snow thanks to the summer spirits – Bunny had just thought it was because he didn't like to be wet. But most importantly, it explained why Jack saw the pond in Burgess as his home; it was no doubt the place he had drowned.

Tooth nodded as Bunny's statement, knowing that he had come to the same true conclusion as the rest of her friends had. "He died protecting his sister, that's why Manny chose him and brought him back to life with help from Seraphina, because he died as a guardian." She said the last part with tears in her eyes, before she shook her head to pull herself together and looked at her friends with serious eyes. "That's why I can't show him his memories. I might not know just what his new memories contain, but I know that no matter what, then having memories of two lives, where one life ended three centuries ago, and the other possibly being created by magic, will cause more damage than good. I can't believe I didn't realize it before North talked me into agreeing with it…"

Silence fell upon the guardians' little group meeting, all falling into their own thoughts. North's frustration from previously had faded, and he was now filled with guilt of having wanted to do experiments on Jack in order to bring him back.

The ancient shooting star looked at Jack, who was watching the guardians from the armchair with a wondering expression while fumbling with something in his hand. Sandy knew about Jack's fear of water way before the others, as he had often chased away nightmares of drowning from the youth, both before and after the kid became aware of his past - he had just never really expected the others to know, so it had come as a surprise when Tooth had told that she knew about the reason behind Jack's fear of water.

Jack looked away from the guardians and stared back into the shadowy corner, before he got to his feet and stretched with a yawn, though the yawn seemed to be false.

A frown appeared on Sandy's face as he saw the familiar mischievous grin being plastered to the youth's face as he once again glanced towards the guardians. He looked down his palm to ensure that the two small pill looking stink-bombs still were there, before he took a few cautious steps towards the guardians, like a predator towards its prey.

His actions made Sandy tilt his head and make a question mark above his head in confusion of what he was up to. The other guardians hadn't noticed Jack's rather strange behavior, and were starting to discuss what to do now, as they couldn't do what was planned before.

Sandy tried to ask Jack what he was doing, if he wanted something, but the youth didn't do anything else but stop up a few meters away, glancing back towards the corner before he looked at the guardians again with determination in his eyes.

The Guardian of Dreams followed Jack's gaze towards the dark corner, at first not understanding what it was he found so interesting there, since he continued to look towards the location, but then his eyes widened and an exclamation mark appeared above his head, as he, sensed an almost non-hearable whisper of shades and shadows, which only one person he knew could provide. He hadn't even noticed any of the sort, hadn't he been aware of Jack's strange behavior. But before he could get to react other than recognizing the whispering voice, and make an exclamation mark, Jack had tossed a small object towards them, which broke the second it hit the floor, and spread a devastating stink of rotten eggs and send a dust of golden sand up towards the still discussing guardians.

Bunny was the first to react to the stink, with his sensitive nose the stink alone would have been enough to knock him out. "Gawk, what tha hell is that smell!" He exclaimed and covered his nose to prevent the stink from entering it. Just as he had said it, and the other guardians covered their noses as well in pure disgust, Jack had thrown the last of the stink bombs – the one with the most dream sand – and a fog of golden sand exploded around the guardians, causing each and every one of them to fall asleep on the floor; everyone except from Sandy, who were immune to the sand, as he was made completely from it himself.

Jack's chuckle of the result died out, the moment the dust cloud had fallen to the floor, bathing everything in a glitter of gold, and only one figure remained standing. The small golden man was staring surprised at his sleeping friends, who all had their nose wrinkled due to the stink, knowing that they would smell of that when they would wake up, but then he looked at Jack with a disbelieving expression, not understanding why the boy had done what he had done.

The youth's breath quickened, knowing he had messed up and that this guardian was able to make him fall sleep with just a sprinkle of the sand he was made of. As the small man started to fly his way, Jack's thoughts became surprisingly selfhating. He knew he shouldn't have done as the shade had asked him to do, and ignored the whispering voices whom had told him the plan, and just stayed put in the armchair until another oppertunity had been provided to him. When did he ever learn not to trust anything supernatural?

As Sandy neared the boy, with a sandball ready in his hands to knock out the boy, realizing he had done this thing in order to escape (because honestly, why else would he had done it?), a shadow silently rose up from the floor behind Sandy, and took form as a man with greyish skin and big yellow orbs. Sandy hadn't noticed him nor why Jack wasn't staring at Sandy anymore, and before he even knew what had hit him, the shade had sprinkled him with black sand, causing him too to fall asleep, though instead of sweet figures, they were twisted and messed up.

Jack watched as the shade tossed a handful of nightmare sand on the yeti which came running towards them and stepped out of the way as the huge creature fell as long as it was and began to heavily snore. He couldn't deny that he was amazed by the figures above each sleeping figure's head; above Tooth's were teeth, above Bunny's were small eggs with legs, above North's was a man riding a horse in the skies, above the yeti's were gifts burning, while above Sandy's head were images of children crying in their sleep.

It had happened so fast that he hadn't really been able to really register what really had happened, he had just done it without as much as a thought, and then the shade had come to his rescue, and…

His eyes moved to the man, who was poking each of the golden dreams, turning them into twisted versions of what they had been before. "My, what are you waiting for?" His silky smooth sly voice questioned, though he did not even look at Jack. "Aren't you supposed to be running back home to your beloved Burgess?"

Jack didn't move as he was too awestruck by what the man had just done for him. He had been the one to tell him how to escape and send the tendril to give him his stink bombs, but why he had went out of his way to help him, he did not know.

A smile spread across the shade's lips as he summoned two of his minions, successfully scaring the boy to get moving and run away, before the guardians would wake up. One of the fearlings was sent to the boy to guide him to the stables, while the other was lingering by its master's side to feed on the fear from the guardians. Pitch however, was watching the nightmares unfolding above the five victims, enjoying the fearful expressions on their faces, though he felt that something was missing. A marker pen, and a little imagination, that was all he and his fearling needed.

"Now that is what I call perfection," he stated to his minion, as he saw what it had created on the Pooka's face. "I did not know you were such an artist." The fearling screamed in response, making him roll his eyes, as he went to the window, just in time to see Jack follow the fearling into the stables. The shade folded his arms as he watched his pathetic grandson disappear into the stables, unable to hide a smirk, before he let himself melt into the shadows and away from the Pole, and the little surprise he had left the guardians once they would wake up from their nightmares.

* * *

**I know, bad end, and bad way of describing how to knock out the guardians, don't kill me.**


End file.
